Evening star., 1949-01-11
The Political Mill
Mrs. Smith Put Finger
On 6. 0. P. Defeat Cause
Maine Senator Says U. S. People
Want Moderation, Not Privilege
By Gould Lincoln


| Mrs. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. the
first woman senator of the United States to bs
elected to her first term under her own steam,
may be freshman in the Senate but she isn't
one in politics nor in sound thinking which is q
major desideratum for the Republican party.
In her first speech since her entry into the
Senate, remarkable speech, before the Wom-
ems National Press Club. she not only put her
finger on a major reason why the Republicans
have lost five consecutive presidential elections,
but she also pointed way to possible victory
for the GOP
Too many Republican leaders, Mrs Smith
said. have clung to the notion that it is not
the business of the Fedora. Government to
intervene in the economic affairs of the people.
Without the context this sounds as though Mrs.
Smith might have moved completely over to
the extremist idea that the Government must
regulate all things for all men; that the Gov
ernment owes every man living, and job.
Mrs. Smith believes nothing of the kind
Her plan for lifting the Republican party
out of the morass of defeat gives the true in
dicaton of her belief-which is that funda-
mentally the American people are moderate;
that the people want moderation, with each
group having a fair share instead of unfair
privileges for special groups And as long
as the American people in the great mass re-
main moderate" the chance for the perpetua.
ton of freedom of the individual and of enter
prise, as the American people have known
freedom, is good. The Greeks who at one time
led the world in culture, government and free
dom, also had phrase for it-"all things In
moderation"
No Fuller Of Punches.
So Mrs Smith predicted that a party, with
a policy of moderation which gives fair
break to labor, to industry and to all groups,
"can achieve an overwhelming majority" And
she concluded: The party which first iden-
titles itself In the eyes of the public as the
moderate party will achieve that overwhelming
victory-because it will have acceded to the
will of the people rather than to any special
groups.
Mrs Smith, who had record of courageous
and independent voting in her nine years
service in the House before coming to the
Senate, is no puller of punches. She said
frankly she had voted for Senator Taft Of
Ohio in opposition to Senator Lodge of Massa-
chusetts who was backed by an insurgent,
liberal group of Republican Senator's be-
cause she liked the Ohio Senator's stand on
housing and Federal aid to education legis.
lation in the last Congress-liberal measures
and the so-called liberal group had offered
mo positive substitute for that which they
opposed" For woman who had been elected
to the Senate as q liberal this was q
courageous stand to take.
Compare Mrs. Smiths speech to recent
quotation from Senator Vandenberg of Michi-
gan-no small potatoes il the Republican
party-Who said:
This country needs on the one hand the
conservatism which conserves not only free
enterprise but also all the other freedoms
which endoW the traditional individualism OF
the American citizen. On the other hand, it
equally requires the liberalism which recog-
nizes and encourages social progress through
cooperation 10 serve the mass needs which
otherwise stand in default. The Republican
party in my view is the indispensable cata-
lytic agent to bring this conservatism and
this liberalism together for the common good
and in national attainment Of both objectives
which, I insist, can be put in gear to-
gether"
Reach Common Ground.
In different language, Mrs Smith and the
Senator from Michigan seem to have reached
common ground-good ground upon which
the Republican party can make its fight for
administration of the Government in the
future
The dinner at which Mrs Smith made her
speech was given in honor of the women in
Congress- ana although chief place was ac-
corded the new woman Senator, the eight
women members of the House of Representa-
tives were each given opportunity to be heard.
They were Mrs. Norton of New Jersey, Mrs.
Douglas of California, Mrs. Woodhouse of
Connecticut, and Mrs. Bossone of Utah, Demo-
Gratis; and Mrs. Rogers of Massachusetts, Mrs.
Bolton of Ohio, Mrs. st. George of New York.
and Mrs. Harden of Indiana, Republicans.
For wit and humor, tinleliness-and brevity,
these eight women surpassed any eight men
members Of Congress this writer ever heard
speak consecutivey-or non-consecutively.
All Of which adds up to the fact that q
woman must be good-just so percent better
than man-to win election to Congress.
Questions and Answers