Evening star., 1951-11-04

concentrated on Gen. Eisenhower.
Many are demanding he make this
clear by the first of the year.
1t seems unlikely. however, that
the general would say II am candi-
date" or even II will accept NOM
nation" as long as he is on active
military service as commander in
chief of NATO forces in Europe.
Some close to him expect that Eisen.
hover will have completed his task
by February or March, that he will
come back to the United States and
get out OF uniform and become i'm
mediately available" In the abb
Sence of statement from the gen.
eral, they are still guessing. :.
The G. o. P, no less than the
Democratic Party, is we'll equipped
with potential candidates. Cows.
Warren of California, Driscon of
New Jersey. Peterson of Nebraska
and former Gov. StasSen of Mime
sofa are all available-and some
thing more. Senators Duff of PENN
sylvania, Dirksen of Illinois and
Lodge of Massachusetts,, and also
Republican Leader of the House
Joe" Martin of Massachusetts, Will
have their supporters for the NOM
lnation.
Senator Taft has the backing of
many of the wheelhorseS of the
Republican Party-and certainly the
support of the so-called Old Guard.
On the other hand. the more pro-
gresSive wing of the G. O. P. is
against him-and SO far. leaning to
Eisenhower, Gov Thomas E. Dewey
of New York-who protests he has
no aspirations for either a presiden-
tlal nomination or a cabinet post
is carrying the torch for Eisenhower.
He has with him in this effort a
number of other Republican Cover
nors, including Peterson, Arm of Kan
sas. Thornton of Colorado. Adams of
New Hampshire, Lodge of Connecti-
cut and Driscoll of New Jersey.
Mony Reody to Step In
What these gentlemen will do if
Eisenhower should decline to run is
still up in the air. Warren of Cali
fornia, Driscoll of New Jersey, Stas-
sen or any of the others might be-
come a rallying point. Obviously,
Warren and the rest are holding
themselves in readiness for such an
emergency"
The political picture, so far as po-
tentlal candidate is concerned-is not
complete without mentioning what is
uppermost in some Democratic minds
and a few Republican-that Gen.
Eisenhower might be persuaded by
President Truman to take a Demo-
cratic nomination for President to
run against Senator Taft-wholly on
the foreign policy issue and on the
theory that Taft is 'isolationist" and
would scuttle NATO. According to
information available, Eisenhower is
not a Democrat, certainly not Fair
Dealer, and he is Republican All
OF which makes Democratic nomi-
nation for Eisenhower unlikely.
If Mr. Truman agrees to run again,
he will have the implacable enmity
Of great number of Southern Demo-
cratic leaders-and of many of the
rank and file. Men like Byrnes of
South Carolina and Byrd of Virginia
are dedicated to the cause of defeat
ing Truman either for denomination
or for the election. In 1948, Truman
lost four of the Southern States to
Gov. Thurmond of South Caro-
lima. He might easily lose those
States and more in 1852. Byrnes and
Byrd and others are keeping their
own counsel for the present. believing
that if the Republicans should nomi-
nate Eisenhower. the general would
defeat Truman, if the latter ran, or
any other Fair Dealer whom the
Democrats might put up.
Issues Are Building Up Fost
The issues for the 1852 national
campaign have been building up fast.
The Republicans will make the most
of their charges of corruption in the
present administration. They will at
tack the administration as Socialistic
in its objectives, wasteful of the peo-
pies money in practice, and unprin-
cipled in administration. They will
attack the Truman administration
fol, its failure to win the peace, after
having won the Second World War;
for building up, first. Communist
Russia and, more lately, communism
in China, by its policies. They will
charge that the administration has
also been soft and tolerant of Com
muniSts and fellow travellers in the
United States, and that it did not
move against any of them until
prodded by the Republicans.
President Truman has clearly in
dicated that, if candidate, he will
60 all out for the Fair Deal program
including civil rights. He has indi-
Gated, too. that he will attack the
Congress, in which coalition of Re-
publicans and Southern Democrats,
has made it impossible for the Fair
Dealers even to get to first base with
their legislative proposals. He will
charge, if Taft is the nominee or a
candidate with similar views, that
the Republicans would take the coun-
try back to isolationism, and would
hamstring the present plans for ade-
quate national defense.
The charges of corruption in Gov
ernment may be devastating for the
Democrats. Particularly they may be
hard hit by the revelations of bribery
and worse in the Offices of collectors
OF internal revenue. Also, the charges
OF political influence used in obtain
ing RFC loans for friendly individuals
which engulfed former Democratic
National Chairman William M. Boyle,
jr.-have made the people suspicious.
Clark Moy Be involved
The President most recently has
tossed another firebrand into the
political arena-the nomination of