Evening star., 1949-01-19
LEGION Of Red Faces,
Visible and Invisible,
To Be Seen in Parade
Largest Group Consists
Of Democrats Who Tried
To Block Nomination
By Dapid Larrence

THIS introduces tne Legion Ol heu
Faces" Some of them will be in
visible tomorrow and some Of them
will be visible in the parade cele-
hrating the Inauguration of Presi-
dent Truman.
The legion consists. to be sure, of
many elements. the least important
of which Is those of us who sincerely
believed and wrote that Harry Tru-
man would be defeated by Gov.
Dewey.
But the larger part Of the legion
consists of those Democrats, prin-
cipally liberals" and New Dealers,
who tried to use Gen. Eisenhower S
name as convenient means OF
denying Mr.. Truman the presi-
dental nomination last summer.
Maybe some Of them who appear
today in and around the White
House without blushing will not
mind q few references to what they
said just before the convention in
Philadelphia.
Roosevelt Brothers First.
First of all, there were the Roose-
welt brothers-James and Elliott and
Franklin, jr. Unlike their mother,
who stood firm for Mr.. Truman, the
boys went all out for Gen. Eisen-
hover.
Then there was the great Demo-
cratic leader from Illinois, Jacob
Arvey boss of Chicago, who signed
the call for a. caucus of anti-Truman
forces. He went so far As to predict
that maybe Adlai Stevenson, since
elected Governor of Illinois, might
even make the nominating speech
for the Eisenhower candidacy. Sem
ator Claude Pepper, who no doubt
will be the Truman leader in Con-
gress on many piece Of legislation
also was one OF those ''last-ditch"
Democrats who thought Mr.. Truman
inadequate and who was going to
fight him to the bitter end at the
convention.
In the Legion Of Red Faces"
must be mentioned the Americans
for Democratic Action-the liberal
group who held a meeting and found
Mr.. Truman so unsatisfactory that
they were willing to take a military
man Of unknown political views as
q substitute. Then there was the
Liberal Party of New York State,
Including David Dubinsky. Alex Rose
and other labor leaders who wanted
Gen. Eisenhower because they didn't
want Mr.. Truman.
One must not forget former Mayor
Hague of Jersey City. the big boss of
the Democrats in New Jersey, who
was ready publicly to sidetrack
Harry Truman: or Mayor ODVyer
Of New York, who also Joined the
Eisenhower band wagon.
Reddest Faces in CIO.
Maybe reddest Of all faces-but
perhaps invisible-will be those of
members of the C1O leadership who
were so strong for Gen. Eisenhower
and so ready to dump Mr.. Truman.
Not so red Of face are certain AFL
leaders who were much more
cautious-in fact, william Green
openly criticized the Eisenhower
candidacy early in the game. But
the rea, reason for the carmine
shade of face in labor's ranks is
what happened just before election.
Again and again as the election
eering went on and the precinct
workers found voters who we're Re-
publicans or persons who planned
to vote for Gov. Dewey, the top Of
the ticket was ignored. Voters were
told to do as they pleased about Mr..
Truman or Gov. Dewey but to be
sure and vote for the Democratic
nominees for Congress. That Is why
Mr.. Truman lost certain heavily
populated industrial States. In
Pennsylvania. for instance. nearly
O dozen Democrats defeated Repub-
licans for the House of Representa-
tives, but Mr.. Truman lost the
electoral votes Of the State. This
happened in other States, too, and
nearly cost Mr.. Truman the election.
Yet labor leaders unblushingly
take credit today for electing Mr..
IL uIi4dlls dHO CilCy d1C III IiiC AO4C-
front of the procession this week
The Legion Of Red Faces" has
one thing in common-whether
liberals" labor leaders, correspond
ents, pollsters or political bosses
They all made the same error. They
underestimated not Mr.. Truman's
ability or capacity or perseverance
they underestimated the strength of
the Democratic Party in the United
States. 1t was and is bigger than
any one man. Mr.. Truman was. to
be sure, q weak candidate last sum-
mer. Time has not altered that
estimate.
Actually he was carried into Office
by q Democratic Party strength that
swept into power many Democratic
Governors and Democratic Senators
by votes that scared way ahead of
his own vote. 1t Is the real lesson of
this weeks events.
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