Evening star., 1945-10-02

ceSSor Will be appointed by The De-
mocratic Governor of Ohio and,
naturally, will be a Democrat. Ha,
slick politics. we say.
But, we remind ourselves, there
has been widespread denland-at
least a widespread Republican de-
mand-that the President refrain
from adding to the existing Democ-
ratio majority in the high court. Ha,
still slicker politics He wins the
favor of the Republicans (maybe)
and forestalls some of the criticism
of the court. And, slickest of all, he
has named man whom nearly
everybody mires and against
whom nobody can offer serious OBJ
lection.
That the Presidents principal
motive might have been a simple
desire to make good appointment
doesn't seem to occur to anybody If
1t does, we could call that politics
too, since why should he want to
make good appointment except to
increase his own popularity?
Typical Example of Reasoning.
This is a typical example of
reasoning on the high intellectual
level of Washington and some
other parts of the United States. A
New York writer uses several pages
of a magazine Of enormous circula-
tion to PROFOUND a political fantasy
that exceeds anything yet produced
in the National Capital. 1t goes like
this:
During the 1914 presidential cam
paign Gov. Dewey came into pos
session of the fact that our armed
forces had succeeded, even before
Pearl Harbor, in cracking the most
secret Japanese military code. (Just
who was guilty of slipping this in
formation to the candidate isn't
told) Therefore Mr.. Roosevelt was
on to the Japanese plans and could
be charged with gross negligence or
worse in failing to prevent or miti-
gate the attack. An uglier inteypre-
tation could have been that Mr..
Roosevelt allowed the attack to
occur in order to make the Ameri-
can people fighting mad and SO
bring America into the war. (Well,
there are people willing to believe
even that concerning the late Presi-
dent).
So. according to the tale, the can
didate having made a somewhat
over-eXcited speech in Oklahoma,
the Administration or the Army be-
came alarmed lest he reveal our
possession of the key to the Japa-
nese code and cause the Japanese
to substitute another kind of pig
latin. Gen. Marshall, the story
continues, sent Nh Dewey note,
pointing out the interference this
could have with our war effort and
the lives it could cost.
Placed + Dilemma"
Now listen to this excerpt from
the magazine article:
'The Marshall letter put Dewey
in a terrible dilemma, which he
talked over at length with Herbert
Brownell and Elliott Bell, his clos
est advisers. Could they believe that
the Japanese were still -adhering to
the old code? Or was Roosevelt
using his Chief of Staff as a means
of forestalling charges or an in
quiry? After wrestling with his
conscience long time. Dewey de-
cided to follow George Marshall,
whom he regards as an utterly
truthful and honorable man"
The candidates alternative, as
seen by the magazine, is thus
stated:
Dewey was in position to charge
that the President had betrayed
the interests of the United States
in failing either to forestall or miti-
gate the attack for which we were
not yet ready. The political i'm
pact of such a charge, if supported
by the evidence of the code-crack-
ing, would have been terrific, and
might well have landed Dewey in
the White House"
There you have it. Mr.. Dewey
might have become President, on