Evening star., 1945-03-23
Letters to The Star
Doubts Liberals Are Sincere in
Homage to Willkie
a Are rd,tnr ~ T1he at.r.

Homase to Willkie
To the Editor Of The star:
have just been reading the monoto-
nous exchange Of correspondence be-
tween that striking example Of self
effacement, Herbert Bayard Swope, and
the bashful, shrinking violet. Earl
Browder. Somewhere along the line,
1t seems, the late Wendell Willkie also
is involved
In order that the original purpose Of
the correspondence is not lost in the
confusion resulting from the scramble
Of Messrs. Swope and Browder to avoid
newspaper headlines, let us briefly
restate the case:
Mr.. Swope and several others have
decided that "the century Of the COM
mon man" can be snatched from the
stars more quickly If they build a monu-
ment to Mr.. Willkie-build it with
dollars contributed by the little men.
the common men. Certainly Mr.. Swope
and his associates are uncommon
people, but that is, guess, beside the
point.
Anyway, Browder wanted to be cut in,
so he sent a check for 5000 to Mr..
Swope as the Communist party's con-
tribution to the fund. This probably
was collected from all the little people
in the Communist party, too. But Mr..
Swope, in a few thousand well-chosen
words made available to all the news
papers, has returned the check to Mr..
Browder.
And Mr.. Browder, not to be outdone
in this frantic escape from the limelight,
hastily withdrew his offer, and covered
his withdrawal in several pages Of type
written manuscript, reluctantly dis
tributed to the press as well as to Mr..
Swope. They both allowed, as under
stand it, that the little people within
the Communist ranks could contribute
individually.
Now, here is where the nausea comes
in. 1t Is rather striking, think, that
the most articulate worshipers at the
Willkie shrine are the same people
whose vituperous phrases-"the bare
foot boy from Wall Street." "the Utility
Hoosier," etc.-helped to kill of his
presidential chances in 1910. Mr.. Willkie
was essentially the same man as
candidate in 1910 as he was upon his
untimely death last october. The
difference was that during the campaign
he had only four months in which to
crystalline his domestic and interna-
tional views, whereas after his defeat
he had four years in which to make
them known.
Yet those Of us who had confidence
enough in him in 1910 to cast our
ballots in his favor have not been fooled.
We put Mr.. Willkie on a pedestal
long time ago, and we have always
believed that his haste in Withdrawing
as Republican candidate in the spring
of 1914, after the Wisconsin primaries,
cost him denomination. We still cling
to the belief that overwhelming public
opinion would have given him the nomi-
nation again on the convention floor had
he continued as a candidate.
But where was Mr.. Swope during the
1910 campaign? And Dorothy Thomp-
son and Rex Stout and Earl Browder?
Why, on the other side, of course.
The liberals who now seek to eulogize
his name through a concentrated pub
hcity campaign didn't discover Wendell
Willkie. The people from the grass
roots of America who stormed the
Philadelphia convention of 1910 with
spontaneous display of mass hysteria
discovered him. Their enthusiasm was
exciting and sincere, not coldly CAL
culating as this present sickening ex-
example of hypocritical reverence is.
R b d.