Evening star., 1944-08-12
RooseveIt-WiIIkie
Entente Seen Possible
Bid for Conference Signifies
Trend, Lawrence Believes
Bv David Laurence

By David Laurence
President Roosevelts invitation to
Wendell Willkie to confer with him soon
on foreign policy carries with it an
understanding that the current politi-
cal campaign is not to be in any way
discussed, but nevertheless, the very
fact of the meeting has considerable
significance in the political world.
Most of the isolationists in the Re-
publican party are more or less an
noyed with Mr.. Willkie and would pre-
fer to have him 90 into the Democratic
party. They say that he has no in
fiuence anyway and they are advising
Gov. Dewey to ignore him.
President Roosevelt, who Is one of the
shrewdest observers of political trends
and who has already proved himself to
be masterful as political strategist,
potentiality in an entente with Mr..
Willkie. Yet Gov. Dewey hasn't thought
1t wise to confer with Mr.. Willkie.
Time Will Tell.
Ml ISoOoCFClI may Dc WTOIR, Oh
course, and the isolationists may be
right. Time will tell. Maybe the day
after the election Mr. Roosevelt will
again prove that he knew his politics
little better than the Republicans
but again these are matters which have
to await the outcome of the election
before they can be effectively appraised.
tics when the candidates OF both
parties were eager to get support
wherever they could get it. They didn't
do anything to snub leaders of any
faction or group inside the Republican
party. But somehow or other the an
tipathy and antagonism toward Wendell
Willkie is such that large group of
Republicans give the impression that
they would rather lose the election
than appease Mr. Willkie or his follow
ing.
Perhaps they are right about it, ay4.
there is such a fundamental cleavage
as cannot possibly be reconciled. Per-
hapS there is no common ground be-
tween the isolationists and those who
1dNOi CO-OptI II llldJ
be true, then the Republican. party will
continue to be hopelessly divided just
as it has been in the past
There are good many Republicans
who feel that domestic issues are para
mount and who are not going to be
disturbed by the kind of peace settle
ment or the kind of international policy
II put into power. To them it is more
important that what they term sound
economic policies be maintained at home
irrespective of what happens in the
world at large
This is view tenaciously held by a
large section of the Republican party
and again it may prove to be controlling
with the electorate. Here also the
voters themselves at the polls will have
to decide in November whether the
foreign or domestic questions have ac-
tually been given priority in their minds.
Well-Defined Trends.
1t is not easy to tell after an election
just what caused victory or defeat,
but there are certain well-defined trends
noticeable in every election and the
candidates who are victorious or de-
feated usually form definite impressions
themselves as to what were the mott
waiting factors in their respective cam
paigns
1t so happens that Wendell Willkie
believes today that he bore in 1910 the
handicap of too much isolationism in
his party and that there were too many
independent voters who thought that
because of the support he got from the
lsolauonlst wing of the party in the
Middle West he would be interested in
compromise peace or an appeasement
policy toward the Axis.
Every day since the election of 1q4o
Mr.. Willkie has given evidence that the
voters who thought him to be an isola-
ZIONIST were wrong. Evidently President
Roosevelt considers Mr. Willkie to be
representative of the independent voters
OF this country and considers him
person worth consulting in the formula
ton of foreign policy.
1t may, of course, turn out that the
independent vote is not sufficient to be
a balance OF power. This could be true
II the protest vote on domestic issues
Is so large as to dwarf the influence of
foreign policy.
But this correspondent is of the i'm
preston that mothers and fathers and
relatives of those overseas will do lot
more thinking about the kind of peace
that is to be made this time and also
whether the seeds of the third world
war are to be sowed than the voters in
1920 did when they brushed aside the
arguments for the League of Nations.
elected Harding and turned their
thoughts wholly to domestic reconstruc-
ton believing that Germany was too
weak to bring on another world war
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