Evening star., 1948-06-21

they thought the Rebeeea West.
system obsolete and regrettable.
In the train coming down from
New York one of the ablest living
Americans expressed a hope that
one day the Constitution would be
altered and the President would be
elected by the direct vote of the
people From the moment got to
Philadelphia I have been hoping
that that day will never come.
While I was waiting for a taxi
(there's joke herein Europe
there is nothing like such a shortage
of railway porters and taxis as you
have here, I noticed that the
people standing round me were all
the same sort OF people. To put 1t
simply, they were tall and forth
right and healthy. After a sec
ond's inspection I saw that I was
right and that they really did
belong together. They all wore
stassen buttons and they had all
just been debouched by a train
from Minnesota.
People Learn About Each Other.
That is what I have been seeing
ever since-people who >bore the
marks of their local origins, who
were representative of the indi-
vidual States of the Union, and I
am all for q system which gets
them rubbing shoulders. They are
at once electing a candidate and
learning about each other and
making the States really united, and
this they would not do If they
simply went into local polling
booths.
Apparently it is only the conven-
tions which bring the separate
State peoples together in this way,
and cannot find any suggestions
for. an alternative system that
would do it. The convention system
would be no good for Great Britain,
since We are a small country and
we know ourselves and our public
men thoroughly. But it might be
better for us and our dominions If
We had employed some unifying
stratagem of the sort towards them.
There was another surprise for
me in the intensity of the political
passion shown by the supporters of
the candidates. In New York had
heard it said again and again that
these conventions were going to be
painful in their lack of first-rate
candidates. Not one of the candi-
dates yet announced, I was told,
showed any sign of being able to
take up the challenge which history
has already flung down at the feet
of the next President.
Types of Supporters Vary.
Yet l find the whole of Phila-
delphia crammed with men and
women who are firmly convinced
that their candidates could take up
this challenge. Some of these are
no doubt simply professional poll
ticians who are doing their best for
the champ. l have seen some who
looked like actors made up to play
such parts.
Others seem to have been sucked
into the Republican Party by sheer
inertia We have vast number OF
them in our British political par
ties. They turn up for everything,
butsone longs to put them under
the truth drug and find out how
much they know of what Is going
on. But there were many men and
women who looked vigorous and
sensible and competent, and their
eyes were shining in the faith they
had in their candidates. They were
often the candidates local support
erS They had probably in their
daily life experienced the actual
value of their administrative pow
ers and were aware of the direction
of their minds. In fact they prob
ably knew things about the candi-
dates which their newspaper records
might for many reasons not show.
Except by the convention system,
I do not see how this local knowl-
edge gets a chance to make itself
felt. Even in Great Britain, small
as it is, we have great difficulty in
showing up that local knowledge
against the power of the central
political organizations.
Conventions Are Dramatic.
Anyway, if the conventions had
no other point would admire them
for their dramatic quality. They
throw the spotlight on the candi-
dates just when the sense of the
nearness OF the ordeal gets them of
guard. I waited today for Tom
Dewey to give press conference in
the Bellevue -Stratford ballroom. All
around the gilded gallery among the
American flags and eagles and the
bunting were huge photographs of
Mr.. Dewey doing the usual candi-
dates things, from smiling at his
wife "a very reasonable act, for
she Is handsome) down to feeding
hens with a sentimental air as If
he knew of something very kind
that one of them had done. In
each one of them he looked as II
he had just been able to pose long
enough for the photographer to
be taken.
When he came In there was the
same sense of arrested speed. He
remembered to smile for the pho
tographers without impatience, he
was good humored and leisurely
under questioning. But surely he
longed for the election to be over so
that he could 60 on working. 60
on governing, go on forcing the
social machine to smooth function
ing. Does his daemonic energy
leave him enough time for refiec-
ton? But how could anybody who
reflected face the appalling ordeal Of
the presidency There can never