Evening star., 1948-06-20
The Republicans and the World

policy and the future OF the world, the
Republican National Convention in Phila-
delphia is an event whose historical i'm
portance can scarcely be exaggerated. For
the man it will nominate for President will
in all probability be an odds-on favorite
for election in November. And that means
that he will stand an excellent chance OF
finding himself next January in an office
empowering him to play key role in
shaping the destiny not merely of the
American people but of mankind as
whole
This Is so for the reason that the United
States today is at the summit of power in
a largely broken and bewildered world
whose free peoples, generally speaking, are
dependent on us for decisive leadership in
the enormously complex and fateful task
of building decent and enduring peace.
In such a situation, because of his great
and unique position under the Constitu-
ton, whoever is President must perforce
exercise an influence of the most far
reaching kind on the course of events and
the fortunes of men in every quarter of
the globe. Either for good or i'll, and
whether by acts of commission or omission,
he simply cannot fail to do this: for his
heavy responsibility is inherent both in the
nature of his office and in the upended
character of our age-an age in which we
can Shrug off our unprecedented inter-
national burdens only at the risk of NOV
ing willy-nilly toward universal disaster.
Here is fact that should have q pro-
foundly SOLDERING effect not only on those
Republicans who are seeking to become
President but also on the convention dele
gates who will nominate one or another
Of them Neither the Nation nor the world
can afford a Philadelphia repetition of
what happened in Chicago in 1920 Warren
G. Harding was an attractive, genial, good
natured man, but he was not big enough,
or wise enough, or farseeing enough for
the presidency in those times. He accom-
modated himself without hesitation to the
Senate's strong minded isolationists. Dur
ing his front porch" campaign standing
on the weaSel-Worded foreign plank of the
COP platform, he gave voice to resounding
antiquities in favor of some vague kind
of international association" But in his
inaugural address he called for prompt
return to "normalcy," and in his first
message to Congress he made clear that
the United States would not enter the
League of Nations. Had he done other
wise, had he led instead of followed, had
he insisted on genuine American CO.
operation with other lands, he might have
reversed the tide of isolationism And
there then would have been less vacillation
and appeasement in Britain and France,
and the chances would have been good to
stop Hitler and prevent the Second World
War
The American temper today, of course,
is not what it was in 1920 BY the over
whelming vote of both parties in Congress,
we have long since been solemnly COM
mitted to membership in the United
Nations, and the platform to be written
at Philadelphia is almost certain to advo-
cate continuation of our hitherto strong
bipartisan foreign policy. Past acts and
platform statements to one side, however,
the fact remains that the Republicans are
by no means united in their approach to
world problems. AS demonstrated in the
recent House and Senate debates on recip-
rocal trade and the European Recovery
Program, many of them are what has
come to be known as "nationalists." That
is to say, they seem to stand somewhere
between isolationism and internationalism,
and they tend to whittle away at measures
designed to enable the United States to
play the global role 1t must play to be
safe. Such men, if they gain the ascend
ancy in the COP, can in time kill off,
nullify or render meaningless undertakings
1iko rorinrncif1y Il ho TpD h1,f fba r;r Ia
device Of amending them or refusing to
appropriate enough to make them work
That is danger not to be overlooked and
it is one of the most compelling reasons
why the Philadelphia delegates should
nominate man capable of heading it of.
For If the Republicans win in November
with a candidate willing to resort to half
measures or to go along with the too
little-too-late wing of his party the United
States and the rest Of the free world win
be threatened with much the same kind of
drift as in the days of Harding. And that
drift that purblind failure to do what the
times demand, that wishful refusal to
acknowledge the grim realities, that lack
of steadfastness and resolution, will play
into the hands of Stain, just as it once
played into Hitler's hands. It is something
that we should not dare to let happen in
the atomic age. If we do let it happen,
then the other western Powers will follow
a similar course, and by thus repeating
the mistakes they committed between the
last two wars the democracies, as Winston
Churchill has warned, are likely to bring
about third convulsion from which none
may live to tell the tale"
It is considerations of this sort that
should dominate the thoughts of the Phila-
delphia delegates as they prepare now to
decide upon their nominee. There are no
supermen in sight, but there are at least
few candidates who give every evidence
of having the qualities an American