Evening star., 1944-04-07


what diminish sympathy for this
honest, able, sincere and courageous
man.
1t is kinder to think that Mr..
WILKES attempt to make it seem
that his Wisconsin defeat was be-
cause of the drift of his party to-
ward isolationism was due to a
mistake and not to deliberate de-
sire to damage the chances of Gov.
Dewey, whose nomination now ap-
pears assured. Yet, the facts refute
Mr.. WILKES statement. For ex-
ample, he gave as one of his rea-
sons for withdrawing that the dele
gate who led in the voting was for
merly active in the America First
Committee and this, he argued,
showed that the party is opposed
to the beliefs which I entertained. )"
Case of Mistaken Identity.
Immediately following this state
ment former Gov. Zimmerman, who
ran ahead of all others, declared
that Mr.. Willkie was clearly con-
fused. He is not and never was
connected with the America First
Committee, Mr.. Zimmerman said.
He Is not and never was an isola-
zionist. Apparently Mr.. Willkie had
mixed him with Mr.. Lansing Hoyt,
who at one time was State presi-
dent of the Wisconsin America First
Committee Mr.. Hoyt was a Mac
Arthur delegate, not a Dewey dele
gate, and was defeated.
The truth is Mr. WILKES effort
to make it appear that his defeat
Is indicative of Republican inten-
tion to adhere to narrow nation
ahsm'' and reaction" just does not
make sense, though that idea will be
energetically promoted by New Deal
propagandists, whose anxiety to
further the fourth-term effort has
caused them to bolster the Willkie
thesis that he was the "indispen-
sable" man for the Republicans:
that failure to nominate him meant
the selection of another Harding"
and doomed the party to certain
defeat.
To read an isolation victory into
the Wisconsin primaries is to ignore
the facts. 1t ignores, first, the fact
that Gov. Dewey, who got three
times as many votes as Mr.. Willkie
as proven by his utterances. is no
more an isolationist than Mr..
Willkie. BY his speech before the
Macklnac conference, by his in
dorsement of the Mackinac resolu-
ton, and by his speech Wednesday
night, Tin which, incidentally, he
repudiated "the Gerald X. Smiths")
he has made it clear he stands for
exactly the kind of postwar inter-
national cooperation that Mr..
Wlllkie does. 1t ignores also the
fact that Gov. Stassen, who is a
more extreme international CO.
operat1onist than any other public
man in the country, got nearly
twice as many votes as Mr.. Willkie.
Dewey Support Expected.
It ignores the further fact that
In its Mackinac conference. at its
Chicago meeting, and in its ac-
ceptance Of the Connally resolution
lndorsing the Moscow resolution
the Republican party has disavowed
1solationism and pledged itself to
international cooperation. Mr..
Wlllkle had a large part in turning
the party in that direction and de-
serves full credit. 1t is not very
edifylng to find him, in effect, still
insisting that all this means moth
ing, that Mr.. Dewey's declarations
DO not count, that the record is
worthless If some one other than
himself is nominated-when it is
now clear some one else will be.
After Mr.. Willkie RECEIVERS from
the natural soreness due to so un-
equivocal a rejection of his a.spira-
tions, it is likely he will see things
more clearly, and his friends feel
that he will Fundamentally support
Mr.. Dewey after his now conceded
nomination. Actually, of course
there is nothing else for him to do
no excuse for reviving either his
velieo threats to bolt the party or
his predictions Of disaster if he
should not be nominated. In the
end the Willkie defeat probably will
nave made a greater contribution
to Republican unity than any other
thing. The idea that isolationism
has triumphed in a Dewey nomi-
nation is too absurd to maintain
Nor is 1t possible to contend that
the Willkie defeat was engineered
by Mr.. Joseph Pew or anv of the
other party figures known not to
care much for Mr.. Willkie. They
were not even in remote contact
with Wisconsin.
Nor can it be maintained that Mr..
Wlllkie was either defeated by the
machine politicians" or that the
opposition "ganged up" on him. Ac-
tually, Mr.. Willkie had a chance to
divide the opposition three ways
There has been no charge either of
cheating or corruption. No "Old
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