The Wilmington morning star., 1946-08-29
Fair Enough
By WESTBROOK GLE

BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, by King Features Syndicate, 1nc.)
NEW YORK, Aug. 28-I hope I never grow
I'D to political maturity because If should
then I might accept as mere routine politics
the present attempt Of Governor Tom Dewey
and the executive committee OF the Repupn-
can State Committee to ditch Maj-Gen. Will
liam J, Donovan and nominate instead Lieut.
Cen. Hugh A. Drum as the candidate for the
United States Senate at the republican state
convention in Saratoga on Sept. 3.
General Donovan's defects in this case are
virtues and General Drums virtues are faults.
Donovan is so strong in his own right that
he doesn't have to commit himself TO support
Governor Dewey in the 1948 presidential con-
test. He is big and strong enough politically
to be his own man in the campaign without
personal obligation to Dewey. This is why
Dewey is against him.
General Drum is just a nice old retired
Army officer who has been selected by the
Dewey group as a gentle, doclle pet VINO
could be swept along in the wake OF DeWeys
rush and would owe his election to Dewey.
The governor is about as sure a hlng 1or
reelection as we ever find in politics and
he figures that if he can elect a senator VINO
would owe everything to him 1t Woulo DE
folIy to let the convention nominate Donovan
who then would stand alone and not in
Dewey's shadow. Nobody ever heard OF Drum
in politics until a few days ago.
This opposition to Donovan is all Deweys
doing and it demonstrates a personal charac-
teristic that Toms friends as we'll as his op-
Moments have noted. He is unwilling to FISK
the presence on the ticket Of a big man, a
man with strength, and l think he does, IN
believing that he could elect Drum over her
bert Lehman, because Drum is SO naive ana
his selection would be so bellttllng to MIN
that the democrats would much prefer MN
to Donovan as an opponent.
II is no pleasure to comment thus on a
resnected friend, but General Drum should
have realized that his position here would De
unidentified almost to the point OF servilty
and l think he must know that TINS HUE
trick is no compliment or favor to him but
r.ther the reverse. Dewey didn't select him
because he thought Drum would make as good
a senator as General Donovan or a good sena-
tor. period. This was no gesture OF personal
friendship, except to Dewey. He picked Gen
eral Drum because he figured ne would oe
a "seat" in the Senate, not a senator, and
a faithful political supporter OF Tom Dewey
for the presidential nomination. the very TACT
that General Drum would accept this status
in itself. constitutes a strong campaign argu-
ment 92dl0SC Mini, uc 1ohSS ~
with Donovan's independence to say nothing
Of his otner points of superiority. Drum could
lose and I think he would.
General Drum is under personal obligations
to Dewey already through his appointment to
the position of commander of the State Guard.
He has done uncommonly well since his re-
tirement from the regular Army for' addlton
Ia his pension, he gets a salary rom the
state and another from the Empire State
building where he succeeded AL Smith by ap-
pointment Of John J. Raskob.
In 1914 he accompanied Dewey on the cam
paign trip through the West just as military
dressing. Roosevelt had the advantage OF
Dewev with generals and admirals throwing
salutes at him all over the place ana SIDE
bows and his own household garrison OF
guards stationed on his place at Hyde Park
and General Drum was taken along with
Dewey to show his three stars and Tor no
other purpose. He wasn't even a member OF
the family circle in the private car at the
rear end Of the train and he couldn't give
Dewey any advice on the way Of the war
because he freely said he had no access to
War Department information, being retired.
Now he is asking for criticism and inviting
abuse, by permitting Dewey to use him in
this, political ruse. In consequence, a respect
ed retired acknowledgement will be pitied by
his friends and ridiculed by his opponents who
will include some Of the most blood-thirsty
political cleaver-fighters of our time. It is not
condescension to say that those who regard
him we'll as a friend and admire him for
his virtues vince for him in anticipation of
all that the new dealers, including the commu-
nists, would do to him, as a bewildered
member of the 'big brass" should he take
the stump, subject to heckling sneers from
G.I.'s.
Sure, Donovan was a major-general and
''big BRASS" but he is also a civilian, and
a politician with campaign experience and,
thanks to his great service in the Second
World War as chief of the espionage and
rescue system known as the office OF stra-
tegic services, he has priceless experience
and knowledge the benefit Of which Dewey
would deny the nation. He is much more
alert and aggressive. He has everything that
Drum has and much more than Drum has not.
I won't 20 into the matter of whether Dewey
is at the bottom of this. He is, and that
is that and Drum was trotted out after some
friends of Dewey in the State Federation o:
Labor threw a smear at Donovan as an enc
nv of labor which didn't stick. They went
back a long way to an occasion when Donovan
prosecuted some unioneers who had dyna-
mited a train, forgetting that Dewey, himself,
had sent a lot of dirty crooks of the union
racket to prison and putting themselves in
the position of Furnishing a sworn officer OF
IL. foJoro1 o,+ for F,1c;11;po hic oath