Evening star., 1944-08-17

being one OF
the party man. Lswsh Mellett.
ayers, I can only guess. and guess
it is because Mr.. Taft has the mis-
fortune to make himself ridiculous
every now and then and Mr.. Dewey
doesn't.
Take the matter Of the soldiers
vote. There is nothing funny about
the way Mr.. Dewey has handled
that. He has simply made voting
SO hard for any New York citizen
serving his country overseas that
very few Of them are expected to
vote. Since there has been a gen.
eral assumption that President
Roosevelt will get the majority OF
the soldier votes that are cast, this
is regarded as smart, tough politics
on Mr.. Dewey's part. Whatever it
makes Mr.. Dewey it doesn't make
him funny.
Supervised Education.
Senator Taft sought to achieve
something Of the same result in
respect to overseas voters from
those States whose Governors have
not been as ruthless as the New
York Governor. He took the round
about way of supervising the SOL
diers' political education. He got
a law enacted forbidding the Army
to furnish soldiers with any read
ing matter that might influence
their political thinking. The law
provided certain exceptions. OF
course. 1t remained possible to fur
nish the soldiers with most of the
American magazines. 80-odd per
cent Of which are anti Roosevelt,
and for the soldiers to receive un-
limited quantities of American
newspapers, 80-odd per cent of
which are ditto Beyond that the
Army officers responsible for read
ing matter had to be mighty care
full
Now American Army officers are
notably brave men. They are, with
out exception. disciples of the doc
trine Of calculated risk. They know
that to accomplish anything on the
fleld OF battle or in the realm Of
strategy, 1t is necessary to take
risks, but they are taught to cal
culate these risks with great care.
They are never brave just for the
sake of being brave.
So the officers responsible for the
soldiers reading calculated the risks
involved in carrying out Mr.. Taft's
law. The risks looked very large.
indeed. Not only could an officer
be f1ned and sent to Jail for vio-
lating any provision of the law, but
Congress can always cut off Army
appropriations. So the responsible
oncers set up an Index Expurga-
torlus OF books which must not be
bought for the boys or distributed
to them.
Interesting List.
This list has grown to be very
Interesting Obviously the Armv
omcers are discovering how greatly
a little education may influence
mans vote. They knocked out the
history books written by Charles
and Mary Beard, 'Lend-Lease" by
Undersecretary OF State Stettinius.
Time for Decision" by former Un-
dersecretary Welles and America
Unlimited" by Eric Johnston, presi-
dent Of the United States Chamber
OF Commerce. And lot more.
Then they made a mistake-if It
was a mistake. since after all these
Army officers may have a sense of
humor-and knocked out Ray Clap
per's book, Watching the World"
That touched of the booby- trap
hidden in the law The result was
an explosion that hoisted Ohio's
senior Senator high in the air.
The Senator isn't quite down vet.
He Is struggling hard to get down.
OF course. for he doesn't enjoy being
funny He has gone along with
others in the Senate and the House
to take some Of the absurdities out
Of the law.
All good citizens will approve this
belsted action Of Congress. Other