Evening star., 1948-05-25
Taft Held in Esteem
By j. :. Lawmakers,
Congress Poll Shows
Vondenbers Runs Second
In Question ReIotins
To Ability Only
Bv David Laurence


To Ability Only
By Dauid Laurence
Members of Congress, who see al
close range the abilities in action oi
Senators Taft of Ohio and Vanden.
berg OF Michigan, seem to prefer
either Of them to all the others men.
toned for the Republican nomina-
ton for the presidency.
Where party preference or per-
sonal likes or dislikes are put aside
and the question relates to ability
only, Senator Taft Of Ohio and Sen
ator Vandenberg Of Michigan ap-
pear to be first choices.
These opinions were expressed In
q poll just conducted by III. s. News
and World Report" an independent
weekly magazine published here
Unlike other polls which asked for
party or personal preferences, this
QUESTIONABLE asked merely that the
seven men most prominently men
toned for the Republican nomina-
tion be rated as to comparative
ability and qualifications for the
presidency, namely as to whether
each would make a very good" or
"fair" or poor President.
Democrats as we'll as Republicans
participated in the poll and more
than 81 per cent of the membership
Of both Houses filled out the ques-
tionnaire which asked for an evalu-
alton of each of these men-Dewey,
Macarthur, Martin, StaSsen, Taft,
Vandenberg and Warren.
SO Members Reply.
OF the 32s members Of both
Houses who replied, Senator Taft
got so per cent and Senator VAN
denberE 56 per cent in the very
good" column. Twenty-eight per
cent thought Taft would make a
Fair" President and 80 per cent
thought Senator Vandenberg would
make = ''fair' President.
Yet In the Senate 80 Senators
gave Mr.. Vandenberg the higher
score on the very good" basis and
Senator Taft was close behind
with 36.
It is interesting to note that 20 OF
the 80 Vandenberg votes In the
Senate came from Democrats while
Taft got II Democratic Senators.
This makes it apparent that, ire
spective of party, both Senators
Taft and Vandenberg are regarded
rs able men who could do a very
good job in the Presidency 1t either
were elected.
The surprise of the poll is the low
esteem in which former Gov. Stas-
sen seems to be held by members
of Congress of both parties. Only
23 per cent of the combined vote
Of both houses rated Stassen as
very good" while 80 per cent rated
him as likely to make poor
President. The Macarthur showing
was 40 per cent in the poor" COL
umn and only "a per cent in the
very good category. though the
Macarthur rating may have been
due to the fact that members OF
Congress do not know him very
we'll. At any rate, Mr.. Stassen has
been speaking his views frankly and
should have made better impress
sion than is to be observed in the
poll.
On the Every good" basis, Mr..
Dewey, with 43 per cent of the
total, and Speaker. Martin, with Al
per cent, seem to be ,eyaluated about
the same, and it is interesting to
note that Gov. Dewey got AZ per
cent and Speaker Martin 80 per
cent Of the votes in the fair" COL
umn.
There may be q cue to the vice
presidential nomination in the TACT
that Gov. Dewey ran next to Sena-
tors Vandenberg and Taft IN the
Senate, getting 28 very good" votes,
which is more than double that OF
Mr.. Stassen. Curiously enough, Gov.
Warren of California got the high
est total of anybody in the fair"
column. Out OF the combined votes
of both houses SO per cent consid-
cred that he would make a~"fair"
President, though only Is per cent
rated him as likely to be very
good" Mr.. Stassen came second on
the fair" basis, with Al per cent
Bearing on Selection.
Many of the senators and repre-
sentatives are either members OF
the delegations at the national con-
ventions or play an influential role
in the maneuvers behind the scenes
What they say and think about
. candidate can have = bearing on
who Is finally selected.
1t does look, on the basis Of the
poll, as II members Of Congress
do not share some Of the preju-
dices held outside the Capitol
against Senator Taft and that, but
for a lack of political personality
on the stump, he would easily be
In the lead for the nomination this
year. Senator Vandenberg, on the
other hand, through his manage
ment of the bipartisan foreign pol
ICY of the Government, appears to
have won the esteem Of Democrats
and Republicans as an exceptional
ly able man. Thus he got the ap-
proval Of SO Democratic members
OF the House. whereas Taft got only
70 Democrats and Speaker Martin
only q Democrats in the very
good" column.
On the Republican side OF the
House, however, Senator Taft out
distanced them all by getting 12l
Republican votes in the very good"
column while Gov. Dewey got 106,
Speaker Martin 80 and Senator
Vandenberg "A. This may indicate
that inside the House the interna-
tionalist position of Senator Van
denberg has not helped him much
and that the House prefers the mid
dle-of-the- e-road position in foreign
policy taken by Messrs. Taft, Dewey
and Martin.
The detailed tables on the poll
afford much food for thought as
to the different strength held by
each of the seven mentioned but,
above all, the poll indicates that
members Of Congress would prefer
to see a man Of national legislative