Evening star., 1950-11-04
Senator Taft Is Victim
OF PAC Distortion in
Ohio Election Fight
CIO Group Emphasizes
Some of Record While
'Suppressine the Rest
By Dorothy Thompson

impartial umpire to inform thu
public when free speech and cam.
paign charges depart from ane
grossly misrepresent truth,
The Political Action Committet
(CIOl has put all it has into de.
feating Senator Taft, in promised
revenge for the Taft-Hartley
(slave labor bill. Significantly
however. this bill is being played
down. 1t simply cannot be sparkee
to inf1ame workers. 1t has beer
in effect for three years and work.
ers are better paid, have better
working conditions and pensions
and are more unionized than be-
fore it was passed. These ar,
things workers know about and
therefore. they cannot be deceived
So the anti-Taft forces are con
centrating on presenting Senator
Taft's record on other socia
legislation.
Their most effective campaign
literature, as direct appeal to tn,
voters and as source material TO
anti-Taft speakers. is a comic bool
entitled "The Taft Story-It's Or
the Record" This purports to Sc
forth Senator Taft's voting recort
in the Senate on bills popular with
farmers. veterans, workers. ant
houseless families. The legent
presents mythical "Mr. Money
Bags" trying to construct a film
to present Senator Taft as frienc
Of the people, and being forced
to destroy it, strip by strip, by the
incontrovertible record of tn,
Senator's votes.
The average man, of course
can follow every debate and vote
in Congress but the details of q
voting record are likely to impress
him as statements of fact anG
therefore unanswerable. The facts
however, as presented in this cam
paign. are SO far from the truth
that the document astonishes any
one who, even to some degree. has
followed the Senator's record on
social legislation.
Trick Is in Selection.
The trick is to record his vote
on given bills while suppressine
all mention of his vote on substi-
tute bills containing similar anc
often improved legislation to effect
the same end.
Thus Senator Taft is presented
as voting against an amendment
to a CT bill introduced by Senator
Barkley, granting free frankins
privileges to servicemen. Not men.
toned is the fact that identica
legislation had previously been in.
corporated in a CT bill under ar
amendment sponsored by Sena'
tors Vandenberg and Brooks, ane
that Senator Taft had voted fol
1t and the legislation was already
on the books.
BY the same hocus pocus Sena
tor Taft is represented as voting
against measures to improve the
pay of enlisted men when actually
he voted against a bill to raise the
pay Of inductees and servicemen
only. He favored an amendment
to raise the pay of all soldiers by
Is per cent. When the original
bill was amended to include all
soldiers, he voted for it.
Similarly. his record on public
housing -w where his leadership
was acknowledged and praised in
a personal letter from President
Truman-has, by just such tricks,
been distorted out of all con-
science.
But the strategy puts the Taft
committee on the defensive neces-
stating that it set forth compli-
Gated and somewhat boring details
concerning every individual bill
while the Senator's opponents fee
sure that the original, ,simpl,
Statement of fact" will stick. L
is not. of course, the first time tina
facts can be used to cloak lies.
CIO Running Campaign.
The CIO-PAC. not the Demo
cratic Party. is running this anti
Taft campaign. The Democrat
candidate is just a wooden figure
head. Senator Taft himself
the whole issue. Literature de
signed and printed in Washing
ton goes to CIO headquarters il
Cadiz. Ohio.
The brain trust of the CIC
Political Action Committee. how
ever, is not Democratic but Socia
ist. 1t is simply laying it's egg
in the Democratic nest, obviousl,
because it realizes that a franl
declaration of it's objectives woult
not win votes. This further con
fuses the situation and disturb
many Democrats who know tina
Ohio is a test of the capacity O.
the CIO-PAC gradually or rapid,
to absorb the Democratic Party.
Both sides, as usual, predic
victory. If the vote is heavy, Sen.
ator Taft forces appear confident
of satisfying majority. But the,
have never before had to deal witt
just this kind of campaign il
which many original-and to thi
cloumnist disturbing, becaus
Observation-Disclosures have been in
troduced. And one thing I thinl
Is predictable. If the CIO by thes
tactics can defeat Taft in Ohio
politicians elsewhere will learn tn
lesson and trim their sails. Their
are not many with Robert Taft
moral and intellectual courage
Released by the Bell Syndicate, Incl