Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1948-06-04

a b out Stassen's
vagueness and in
ability to answer Taft's charges"
"And these" he wound up, "are the
same people who have been shoot
ing at Taft ever since he started his
presidential campaign"
There is something in what this
man says. You would be surprised
how many liberals, how many DEM
ocrats even, praise Taft privately,
would really like to see him elected,
but either they can't quite come out
openly in his favor, or they take
for granted he can't win anyhow.
Then there is the great group of
Republicans who are going to
vote for Dewey, but act as If they
were gritting their teeth in the
process. "What have you got
against Dewey" ask them.
Some are vague, others say the
New York governor is "strad-
dler an opportunist never
comes out for an issue until he
sees Gallup poll on it but I
suppose he'll win :" Can he?
Since the Stassen hurricane, the
oldtimers are talking a little diff
ferently about Dewey. Some of them
who have predicted right along that
Dewey would win now are saying
that Stassen has undermined him so
thoroughly that now Dewey has no
more chance than Taft
And all the time the Vandenberg
tide is rising. But here's an inter-
esting thing. Way back in Febru-
airy some very canny observers
were saying that Speaker Joe Mar
tin of the house of representatives
had the best chance of anyone for
the Republican presidential nominal
ton, in case of the expected Taft
Dewey deadlock.
At the time many people we're
surprised at that opinion. But it
wasn't long before we began to see
mention of Martin here and there.
Then, finally, insiders accepted him
as probably the best bet of the sew
eral Republican dark horses. I know
I could feel his popularity growing
as I travelled around the country.
But then came the surprise
move when Martin was credited
with bringing about settlement of
the coal miners pension rOw-the
appointment of Sen. Styles Bridges
Of New Hampshire as neutral
trustee on the pension board with
John Lewis and Ezra Van Horn,
and the agreement that was
reached between Bridges and
Lewis.
At first the settlement put Martin
in a favorable light with the pub
lie. Then some of the conservative
Republicans who hate Lewis ex-
pressed their disapproval. There.
were hints of deal" that had been
reached between Bridges and Lewis
before Bridges was appointed. Dem
ocrats charged that Martin was poll
ticking. Horn, representing the op-
orators, appealed to the courts to
declare the pension agreement in
valid.
Martins stock dropped. And the
oldtimers began to say his chances
for the presidential nomination were
slim. Not so much because of the
pension deal itself, but paradoxical-
ly-and this is one of the accepted
paradoXes of politics-because his
Intervention in the row was taken as
public avowal of his candidacy.
Martin ceased to be dark horse
and as light horse, he wasn't con-
sidered nearly as much of a favor
lite.
The paradox applies to Senator
Vandenberg. The Michigan SEN
ator constantly and consistently
has disav0wed any desire or in
tentiOn of being a candidate for
the Republican nomination. If, ac-
cOrding to this paradoxical po-
litical rule, the oldtimers say, he
were thrust into the limelight, his
cause would suffer too. At this
writing, Vandenberg seems to
stand as the No. l bet.
Stassenites, however, claim that
this paradox is all old hat; that
times and political thinking have
changed. One of the first black
marks which the Republican old
guard checked against Stassen was
the fact that he came right out as
candidate way ahead of time. The
traditional thing is to be oh, so coy
about 1t.