Evening star., 1946-02-27

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diligently and determinedly the most
disparaging stories about Mr.. Tru-
mans "cronies" and his alleged
statements concerning his own un-
willingness to run in 1948. Consid-
ering the fact that Mr.. Truman has
adopted and is pursuing every
Roosevelt policy-and particularly
espoused the FEPC bill, the mini
mum wage bill and the Wallace full
employment proposal, which more
or less have been made the tests of
"liberalism"-the ferocity and per-
slStency of the attack of these
Roosevelt politicians and their jour-
nalistic ref1ectors does not make
much sense.
Even in the case of Mr.. Pauley the
President appears to have been car
rying out Roosevelt policy. 1t was
Mr.. Roosevelt who made Mr. Pauley
Democratic treasurer; it was for Mr..
Roosevelt he collected the money in
1914, and it was Mr.. Roosevelt who
tols Secretary Forrestal that he
wanted to appoint Mr. Pauley As
sistant Secretary of the Navy. Nor
mally, one would think these facts
would have caused these left-Wing
upholders of the true liberalism"
to be little less savage in their in
dictment of Mr.. Truman as. to some
extent at least. it is an indictment
of Mr.. Roosevelt.
Unrestrained Onslaught.
But, with the blandness charac-
teristic of this group in avoiding
unpleasant facts, the indisputable
one that, to some extent at least,
Mr.. Truman inherited Mr.. Pauley
from Mr.. Roosevelt is completely ig-
nored. And the onslaught by left
wing spokesmen and writer's is un-
restrained. One favorite allegation
which appears in print and is put on
the air is that the palace politi-
clans" who surround Mr.. Truman
are reminiscent of Warren c. Hard
ing.
Chief basis for this, of course, is
that Mr.. Pauley is an oil man. That
he was an Oil man when Mr.. Roose-
velt set him to collecting money for
his 1914 campaign and when he
proposed to make him Assistant Sec
retary of the Navy is not mentioned.
A second method of attack is the
continued prediction that Mr.. Tru-
man will choose not to run in 1913
This, despite Mr.. Truman's denial
of any such idea, is repeated on the
radio time and again. It is also
printed in various forms.
And, of course, though very un-
likely, it may turn out to be true in
the end. What some practical poll
ticians profess to think at the mo-
ment is that all this is just part of
a calculated effort Of the radicals
to make Mr.. Truman take himself
out of the field in order that the
way may be cleared for the nomi-
nation of either Henry Wallace or
Justice w. o. Douglas, both of
whom are most acceptable to the
CIO and its PAC-and equally
eager personally. Unless, it Is point
ed out, Mr.. Truman retires, there
isn't a chance to nominate either
Mr.. Wallace or Mr.. Douglas, or
any one other than Mr.. Truman.
Noisy Group.
Hence the drive to make the
Pauley business appear even more
devastating politically than it is
and to convince Mr.. Truman that
he must retire. If this effort is
really being made-and certainly
there are some grounds for believ-
ing so-it is not likely to succeed
for several reasons. One is that
there Is not political strength
enough behind it to be effective
The group is more noisy than nu-
merous. Another is that it is very
clear that if Mr.. Truman should be
driven out and a CIO-favored can
didate named, the Republican can
didate would have Walkover.
Mr.. Truman may not win, but
certainly, with Mr.. Truman forced
out, no radical of the Wallace
Douglas type can. Though not very
clearheaded generally, it would
seem that the gentlemen now en-
gagged in trying to make it impos-
sible for Mr.. Truman to run would
have enough political sense to know
this.
They ought to know, first, that