Evening star., 1946-10-18

ana almOSI CcTJdlH 10 De IT'S ~
Dental nominee in 1948. This sys-
tematic disparagement by his own
people does not make sense.
Naturally, praise of Mr.. Roosevelt
and the Roosevelt policies" by
Democratic conventions. candidates
and leaders Gncluding Mr.. Truman
HIMSELF is to be expected. Failure
to do that would be absurd. 1t
would amount to reputation by the
party of the party and of the party
former President. Parties never re-
pudiate themselves. That is the
main reason no one-term President
Is ever denied a denomination or
can afford not to take pne. Failure
to renominate or failure to run
amounts to self-repudiation for both.
Neither parties nor Presidents oper-
ate In that way. Thus eulogy Of
Mr.. Roosevelt is as natural now as
the nomination of Mr.. Truman will
be natural two years from now.
Bombastic Praise.
What is neither natural. normal
nor sensible is an utterly dispropor-
tionate deluge of praise, so bonn
bastic and extreme as to make it
appear that the Democratic Party
has no one living worth speaking
about at all; that its only favorable
comment is reserved for the dead.
Even If this were true, it would be
bad politics to proclaim it. The un-
necessary belittlement of ones own
man is not good politics. Usually,
that is left to the opposition, and
the party in power upholds, defends
and denies.
These Democratic bosses are much
too busy at present praising Mr.
Roosevelt to say a good word for
the unfortunate Mr.. Truman Thus
the current Democratic strategy all
but reverses the usual procedure.
BY so vastly overriding the Roosevelt
eulogy 1t minimizes and disparages
Mr.. Truman and thus plays squarely
into the Republican hands. Votes
can be lost that way; certainly none
will be gained.
Moreover, the thing that makes
the whole business especially silly is
that Mr.. Truman is no more the
spineless little nonentity the super
eulogies tend to make him out than
the late Mr.. Roosevelt was the su-.
preme embodiment of all wisdom
and virtue.
Shackled to Policies.
Actually, of course, the main trou-
BILE with Mr.. Truman is that he has
inherited the awful mess which 13
years of Mr.. Roosevelt had made of
the country. Inevitably compelled
by the tragic conditions under which
he became President to pledge con-
tinuancy of the Roosevelt policies'
and to admiration of Mr.. Roose-
welt personally, President Truman
was shackled from the very begin
ning-not only by the economic poll
cies of the previous administration
but by its degrading political alli-
ances. Had he been free of these,
undoubtedly he could have done bet
ter.
This is not to claim that Mr.. Tru-
man is any Giving ball of fire" nor
to contend that he has not made
grievous mistakes inexcusable on the
ground of the Roosevelt commit
ments. :, 1t Is to assert that he never
had fair break and that if he had
been a much stronger man than he
Is, there was not an awful lot he
could have done. For 13 years we
had been pursuing a preposterous
course toward an impossible goal,
defying the rules of reason and the
accumulated experience of the ages.
The results were inevitable. 1t is
Mr.. Truman's tough luck that the
whole sticky business had to come
unglued Immediately after he took
hold. Had his predecessor lived, the
evidence of his failure would have
been so clear that the glamour and
prestige which, one way or another
he had accumulated would have dis
appeared. He was lucky to the last
Hannegan Helps COP.
As things are, there is a whole lot
Of foolish talk in political circles
about the Roosevelt policies" but
no one today knows what the
Roosevelt policies" either foreign
or domestic, really are. Literally
there is nothing left of them.
And that is not the fault of Mr.
Truman, who has been fcolishly
trying to carry them out after time
has dissipated and disproved them
When Mr.. Truman makes this dis
covery and strikes out on his own,
the better off both he and the
country will be. Whatever the out
come of the November elections,
II they relieve him of his present
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