Evening star., 1947-04-21

i've WlLf1ln 1LS FRANK -. Aehs.
means. They know further that
his access in public strength dates
from the last election when the
Roosevelt policies went down the
drain, the Republicans took con-
troll Of Congress and Mr.. Truman
became free to be himself.
All these things are exceedingly
unpalatahle to the true liberals
but there Is nothing to do except
swallow them They are, in fact,
pretty miserable about it because
the sham OF pretending sufneient
strength to affect an election is
getting very great and the inherent
phoniness Of their game becomes
increasingly apparent. Not even
their unusual publicity facilities can
obliterate the November figures,
which show that wherever they CEN
tered their forces against q candi-
date he was triumphantly elected.
Liberals Beaten in New York.
This was particularly true in New
York, where every liberal" element,
including the CIO and the Commu-
rlists, ganged up on Gov. Dewey, and
in California, where James Roose-
velt, as manager for the breast
beating Will Rogers, jr., took really
thorough beating. These and similar
parts of the 1916 record are now
assumed to have been erased from
the feeble minds Of the unreasoning
people, and we are supposed again
to take seriously the fulminations of
the frowsy groups Of repudiated
radicals of the Roosevelt regime,
with theiI. grandoise Humanitarian"
platforms and incredibly costly left
wing demands.
A fine example of these was the
extremely muddy and verbose maga-
zine article in which James Roose-
velt recently expressed his views
under the highly original title OF "A
Challenge to Democracy"
1t was q typical piece Of liberal"
literature-without clarity of thought
or novelty Of expression. It spoke
glowingly and inaccurately - of
what the liberals" were, are and
will be. But, nowhere did 1t re-
motely touch upon the only inter-
esting thing about the liberals" as
Of today, which Is their change in
tactics.
They no longer threaten Demo-
cratic disaster If they are not recog-
,nized and appeased. Whether Mr..
Truman vetoes the Republican labor
bills or not will lose him or gain him
few votes from these elements. Not
even from the rampageous Mr..
Wallace is there any suggestion Of .
third party or of Republican support.
: Upon only two things do they now
lay stress. One is that they intend
to take an active part in all Demo-
cratic nominating conventions
State and national. This, of course,
is q joke, as the two liberal" groups
combined could elect only negli-
gible number of delegates to any
national convention.
No Threat of Bolting the Party.
The other Is the rather plaintive
point that the Democrats can win
in 1948 only If the full vote" of the
old Roosevelt groups comes out.
There is no threat that these might
bolt the party-only the hint that
II the Democratic platform is not
satisfactorily liberal" the liberals"
may stay at home. Certainly, there
would be no other place for them to
20. However. one gathers that II a
true liberal were nominated for
the vice presidency that would be
regarded as satisfactorily liberal" "
Inevitably, Of course. the name Of
that modest member of the Su-
preme Court-William o. Douglas
Is put forward again.
1t always is--despite the we'll
known fact that Justice Douglas
hates the attending publicity ex-
actly the way a thirsty horse hates
the water trough. And other names
of outstanding liberals" are men
toned If Justice Douglas could not
be induced to take the risk.
The idea sought to be conveyed Is
that only with a liberal running
mate will there be a chance for Mr..
Truman next year. In this connec-
tion 1t is worth pointing out the
conflict between the generally ac-
cepted theory about vice presidential
candidates and the facts.
The theory is that the vice presi-
Dental candidate must be chosen
for two reasons: Cd To balance
the ticket geographically; {2) In
order, by his popularity at home, to
carry an otherwise doubtful State
for the ticket. That Is the theory.
The facts are these: Cd Not in the
history of American politics has any
President been elected because his
running mate carried for him any
State he would not have carried by