Evening star., 1948-10-03

language In q presidential campai
People VS.. the Special Interests"
The "reactionary business" an
larded his Labor Day swing through
16-day tour to the Pacific which e
new Truman glossary includes such
entries as "gluttons of privilege,
hogs" economic tapeworm of biz
business" crafty men," "sabotagins
the West" 'pitchfork in the farm.
er's back" predatory animals" ane
SO on, almost endlessly, with every
spot touched by the President or
the 8,000-mile tour, getting a TASTE
OF invectives.
1t has been one sustained efforr
OF belaboring tactics, with the Pres.
ident committed to a program plain.
ly aimed at two goals. One is tt
bring home to the people who heal
him the evils" of the Eightietf
Congress in particular, and of the
Republican Party in general. The
second: To force Gov. Thomas E
Dewey to descend from his high
level" campaign and put on the
boxing gloves.
The only way to appraise the sue
cess Of the former move is to watch
the reaction Of Mr.. Truman's hear
ers. This has been decidedly
mixed. Often-and this was par.
tlcularly noticeable at the whistle
stops" where rural audiences pre-
dominated-there was marked ap.
probation of his sallies, and such
cries as Pour it on" On the other
side, some of the larger crowds
while attentive, have sat on theil
hands, as the saying goes, leaving
onlookers wondering whether it was
q deep interest in the presidential
preachings or idle curiosity that
stirred them from home. That's an
imponderabie that it will take No.
vember to decide. The President
accepts the turnouts as a sign of
interest in what ne now refers to
as his crusade"
Keeps Hammering Away
The effort to smoke out Gov
Dewey and get something other
than the double talk" to which the
President has accused the Repub-
lican leaders Of resorting is, still to
bear fruit. But Mr.. Truman has
hammered away, mindful of the sue
cess that Franklin Delano Roosevelt
attained in this direction. Whether
Mr.. Dewey can continue to deal In
uppercase language and get away
with 1t, is another one of those
things which time alone can resolve.
Herbert Hoover had pretty goodluck
in that direction, and the Democrats
then, as now, were the underdogs.
At any rate, that's the form the
Truman overall strategy has taken,
and the pattern conforms to the
Presidents reiterated declaration in
the June "nonpolitical' tour of the
West that he intended letting the
people have the facts. Once they
have these facts, he always says, he
Is not worried over the outcome, if
they will just get out and vote.
The "era of fear" theme which
Mr.. Truman chose to push to the
front in his first bid for votes on
Labor Day has not been so pro-
nounced on the .just-completed
jaunt, as the President seemingly
has been content to dwell more on
what the Republicans have done
to YOU" than what is to happen in
the future. But at the same time,
the latter idea has kept plainly in
sight.
Skips Price-Control Topic
One surprising feature of much
of the trip was the subordination of
the issues of price control and
Taft-Hartley Act which earlier
promised to be twin corner
stones in the foundation of his at
tack on the Republicans. From
time to time, as he swung from the
Mississippi to the Pacific Coast and
then up through the Southwest,
there were references to these two
items on which he fought losing
battles with the "do nothing, good
for nothing Eightieth Congress, "
but 1t was not until he was well
on his way home that he started
bearing down on these points
For the most part, his talks have
been woven around other topics.
with agriculture and land-water
conservation getting the heaviest
play. This, of course, could be ex-
planned by the fact that so much of
the stumping was done in rural
communities. The President also
had plenty to say about Democratic
prosperity"
1nlS cnOlce OF topics has worked
to his advantage in some places,
naturally, but in others the con-
trary was true.
One outstanding example was San
Francisco. That city happens to be
hot and bothered about the Com
munist issue, a condition due in
good part to the maritime strike.
According to reports, when down.
state POLITICAL leaders boarded the
presidential train to accompany Mr.
Truman into San Francisco, they
urged that the President cut loose
on the Ccmmies that night, arguing
that that was what the people
wanted to. hear. The upcoming
speech had already been drafted
however; it was too late for a
change and crowd of about 25,000
heard with comparative apathy the
President talk on world peace near
the site of the birthplace Of the
United Nations, and also pay his re-
spects to the Interests supporting