Evening star., 1949-12-27
The Political MiN
'Anti-Me-T ooism' Won't
End G. 0. P. Sufferinos
Statement of Policies Must Recosnizs
Basic Causes of Election Defeats
Bv Gould Lincoln

Basic OauSeS OF Election Defeats
By Gould Lincoln
Republican diagnosticians, seeking the
cause Of five national defeats in row, have
come up with "me-tooism" as the disease
from which the COP has been suffering So
they are setting out to eradicate the disease.
National Chairman Guy George Gabrielson
has just announced the appointment of
committee Of is members Of the National
Committee to work with "other interested
groups" in formulating . statement Of prin-
ciples and policies on which the party will
campaign to win the congressional elections
Of 1850.
Anti-me- -tooism is eagerly accepted by
those Republicans who wish to get back to
the good old days Of Calvin Coolidge-the
ultra conservatives. It Is accepted, too, by
those Republicans who do not like any part
or parcel Of the bipatisan foreign policy
and who banker for isolationism again. The
first Of these two groups say they would root
out pretty much everything the New Dealers
and the Fair Dealers have done. The second
group would have the COP attack the Tru-
man administration foreign policy no mat
ter what it happened to be.
Forget Basic Causes.
The anti-me- -tooists say they are fed up
with the Deweys and WILKES as types of
Republican presidential nominees. They in
sist that Mr.. Willkie in 1910 and Gov Dewey
in 1914 and 1948 were too New Dealish too
"me-tooiSh," and that was the cause of their
defeats. Perhaps they forget that Demo-
cratic victories in 1882 and 1886 grew out Of
. great depression, that the Democratic
victory in 1910 was also Influenced by the
results Of that depression, plus the war
clouds hanging over the world, that the
Democratic victory Of 1914 was made certain
by war, and that the Democratic victory of
194S was due to the fact that employment
was high and business good in the postwar
area.
'"Me-tooism" is an embracing term.
But just where does 1t begin and where
does it end? And how did it get that way?
Some light may be thrown on the subject
by recalling how many Republicans in the
Senate voted for the North Atlantic Secur-
ity Treaty, and how many Republicans in
the Senate and the House voted for the
Marshall plan Of aid to Western Europe,
for Federal public housing. for farm price
supports (something practically unknown
IN Cooltdge's day., for Federal aid to edu-
cation in the Senate and for Social Security
Act extensions in the Houses. The answer
OF course. will be that very large numbers
OF Republicans voted for each and every
one.
General Denunciation Doubted.
Many Of these Republicans will have to
stand for reelection to Congress next year.
So it becomes important to them, where
'me-tooism" begins and ends and where
these limits are set in any statement of
principles and policies which the Repub-
lican National Committee, aided by the
Republican Policy Committee of the Senate
and House, may write. A general denun-
citation of "me-tooism" in that document is
going to be difficult.
Among the most vociferous Of the anti
me-tooists are critics of the bipartisan
foreign policy. Senator Vandenberg of
Michigan, an architect Of that policy, has
made the complete answer to those Repub-
licans who seek to repudiate bipartisanship
from the waters edge out. Do you wish,
he asked, to have the Republican Party
adopt as its motto: Divided we stand,
united we fall"?
There are plenty Of things on which the
Republicans can and should differ with the
Truman fair-dealers-but a blanket anti
me-tooism so-called doesn't make sense.
They can fight against socialized medicine,
the fantastic Brannan farm plan, tremen-
dous Government expenditures Crunning
the country deeper and deeper into debit,
and high taxes, for example. When the Re-
publicans did come into power in Congress
as result Of the 1946 elections, they gave
good account of themselves and GER
tainly were not charged with ''me-tooism" by
anybody. Yet they initiated and put through
the Marshall plan legislation at the same
time they were reducing taxes and knocking
down the old. fantastically one sided Wag-
ner Labor Relations Act. and Republic
can Senate passed both Federal housing and
Federal aid to education measures.