Evening star., 1948-06-21
COP. Convention Is Opened
Recesses After Brief Session;
Foreign Policy Plank Under Fire
Buckers Confident
OF Beating Efforts
To Tone 1t Down
BY the Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA, June 2l.-A
battle on foreign policy threat
ened today in the Republican
Platform Committee. Several
members were reported baking
at what has been called the
most international" plank ever
proposed for the Republican
Party.
They are mostly members of Con-
gress, held in Washington for the
late adjournment. who only got
around today to close study of the
preliminary draft of planks pre-
pared by members of the Resolutions
Committee in pre-convention ses-
sionS.
Representative Harness of ~Indi-
ana, resolutions member just ar
irving, told reporters he expects an
effort to be made in the 104-member
committee later in the day, to pull
some of the international teeth"
of the foreign plank.
Vandenberg Approval Reported.
II have a very definite feeling" he
said, that we should go little bit
slow in making commitments this
far in advance on foreign legislation.
We should be able to look the situa-
ton over next year and make de-
cisions based on conditions at that
time"
The preliminary draft of the pro-
posed foreign policy plank has been
kept secret, but is reported to have
been approved by Senator Vanden-
berg, Presumably it is in line with
mis- foreign policy views.
Backers of the plank said they are
confident they can beat any efforts
to tone it down.
BY and large, the proposed plat
form is reported to follow this idea:
Accept President Truman's chal-
lenge and write the 1948 platform
largely on the record of the Repub-
lican-controlled Eightieth Congress.
Anti-Red Plank Demanded.
! A group of Congressmembers de-
scended at midday upon the plat
/ form committee headquarters to de-
mand a strong plank condemning
communism, as proposed in the
Mundt- Nixon bill that passed the
House but died in the Senate.
! Representatives Mundt, Republi-
can, of South Dakota and Nixon,
Republican, of California, authors
of the legislation, informed the COM
mittee that an amendment to the
| platform will be offered at the res
olution committee session late today
| proposing a plank "to regulate, ex-
pose and identify communism" at
home.
House Speaker Martin arriving in
Philadelphia to take over the role
/ OF permanent convention chairman
tomorrow night, told reporters: THE
record of the Eightieth Congress
makes a platform the Republican
Party can stand on and win on"
/ The President has called it the
second worst" Congress in history.
Platform Up for Approval
The convention platform drafters
their ears attuned to the late do
ings in Congress, completed the
partys policy document yesterday.
1t went today before the full Plat
form Committee for approval. To-
morrow or Wednesday it will be laid
before the convention for ratifica-
! ton.
It's exact wording is a deep secret
until the full Platform Committee
acts. But some persons close to the
drafters said it will:
/ /. Pledge the party to shun iso-
lationism and to continue the BIZ
partisan policy of international CO.
operation and American aid for
nations resisting communism.
! 2. Reaffirm the Republican stand
/ for creation of permanent Fair
Employment Practice Commission,
| for enactment of anti-lynch and
anti-poll tax legislation, and call for
an end to race segregation in the
armed forces. Such a plank was
written into the 1914 COP platform,
but none of the legislation has
passed Congress.
3. Refuse to yield to organized
labor's demands for repeal of the
Taft-Hartley labor law but: Restate
the, 1914 platform declaration that
the Republican Party is the his
torical champion of free labor and
(see PLATFORM. Page A-5D