Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-10-08
Personalities of Candidates
Held Main November Issue
Present Campaign Likened to Roosevelt. Willkie
Battle When Both Advocated Similar
Stand on Major Problems
By Charles G. Ross.

y
If the independent voter had no more
to guide him than the policies espoused
by President Roosevelt and Gov. Dewey
in the field of domestic reconstruction
and economic security, he would be JUS
titled in Tipping coin to determine his
choice between the two candidates on
November 7.
Dewey has sought to take foreign
policy out of the campaign by approving
the military leadership of the war and
pledging himself to work for full
American share in an international or
ganization to prevent future war. In
his recent speeches on domestic issues,
notably those in California, he has
likewise narrowed the ground separating
him from the President.
So far as domestic policies themselves
are concerned-policies at their face
value and apart from questions of adj
ministration and atmosphere"-there is
little difference between the candidates.
Dewey accepts these New Deal reform
measures virtually in their entirety
social security, aid to farmers, low inter-
est rates, the Wagner Labor Relations
Act and the rest-and promises to carry
them forward. Willkie did precisely the
same thing in 1910.
Where, now, is the New Deal?" COM
mented the New York Times after
Dewey's San Francisco speech. Mr..
Dewey, of course, is clear-eyed enough
to see that it is right beside him on
the platform, practically at the micro
phone"
One Overall Issue.
There is, however, an issue remaining
between the President and the chal-
lenger-an overall issue. Dewey says
the New Deal reform laws have been
badly administered, in IAN atmosphere
of studied hostility toward our job
producing machinery" chat is, toward
the private enterprise SYSTEM, and that
If he and the Republican party are
given the chance. they will be well
administered, in an atmosphere friendly
to that system.
It is the Presidents position that l.
private enterprise is to be preserved
In health and vigor. it must be safe
guarded against the reaction that would
set in If the administration of the
progressive laws of the New Deal were
intrusted to the Republican party, many
of whose leaders would not even
recognize these progressive laws if they
met them in broad daylight"
To say that the issue to which Dewey
has limited himself in the domestic field
is concerned almost wholly with methods
and atmosphere (they come down to
the same thing Is not to dismiss his
candidacy lightly. True, his failure to
offer anything new opens him afresh to
the criticism that he is precise as to
DETAIL weak on policy" but on the
credit side 1t should be said that his
position, whether or not dictated by
expediency, is definitely policy making
within his party. 1t may represent no
advance by comparison with the New
Deal but it represents far advance
from the conservative principles which
have dominated Dewey's party. Indeed,
it raises the interesting question whether
Dewey, if elected, will have any better
luck with Congress, no matter how
strongly Republican, than Roosevelt is
expected to have with Congress if he
is elected.
Would Have Troubles.
If the majority of Republicans in
Congress vote as they have voted in
the past on social-welfare measures and
there is likewise no change Gas there
won't be- in the voting habits of the
Southern Democrats, Dewey, if elected,
will certainly have his troubles. To
put the matter in another way, the
espousal of progressive principles by
Dewey means that there is really
third party-the conservatives of both
the old parties-which is without rep
resentation in the presidential campaign
but which will be powerful and per-
haps the dominant fatcor in the next
Congress, no matter who may be elected
President.
The pledges OF Roosevelt and Dewey
are, of course, vitality important, and the
careful voter will weigh one set of
pledges against the other; they need
to be read, however, in the light of
the fact that any policy dependent on
congressional approval may be sabo-
tagged.
If progressive doctrines are to pre-.
vail in the Government, not only
President committed to them must be
elected, but progressive Congress as
we'll
Steps Ahead Of Party.
For still another reason than that
he has stepped out ahead of his party.
Dewey's candidacy is not to be waved
aside as of no substance because he
has accepted the principles of the New
Deal. Methods in the administration of
the laws are of vital concern to the
citizen. The late Senator Couzen of
Michigan used to observe that nine
tenths of law was not in its wording
but in the manner of it's administration.
The remark might be paraphrased: I
care not who makes the laws if you
will let me execute them. Special weight
attaches to execution in the case of laws
which admit of such wide executive dis
erection as do some of the principal
enactments of the New Deal.
Dewey. then, has an issue of sub
sance-though not spectacular issue
In the absence of some nation shaking
scandal like that attending the oil leases
Of the Harding administration when
he concerns himself with methods and
atmosphere. He is justified in pointing
out what he conceives to be abuses In
S1,ex y, - I.