Evening star., 1952-08-23
Ike's Views Take Form

General ESennOWerS question and answer
session with a group of Midwest Republicans at
Kansas City lends some degree of form and
substance to his political philosophy
The things that were said by the Republican
candidate do not add up by any means to
comprehensive, well-dehned statement of his
beliefs. But he said enough to suggest that his
own thinking on the main issues is becoming
hrner and that, In time he will take q reason >
ably definite stand with respect to the questions
that are in the minds of millions of voters.
This is especially true Of his comments on
the Korean war and the United Nations. Answer
ing what certainly was not q friendly question.
General Eisenhower said that terrible blunders"
had led up to the war in Korea, but that he did
not see how we could have stayed out, once the
fighting started. This was not politically
expedient answer. It will be distasteful to a
considerable number of people, including some
who have forgotten the sense of relief which
swept this country when the decision to fight
aggression was announced. In The Stars
opinion, however, it was a correct answer
correct in the sense that General Eisenhower
was also right in saying that we would be in
even greater danger today If we had not elected
to fight in Korea
The Republican nominee did not have much
to offer in the way of an affirmative program for
ending the war in Korea and getting our troops
OuV. 44O AVJCNVC0 OLA dttdOA oAA SIAAln do OC1AlS
militarily infeaSible, which it probably is He
also spoke-more wishfully than otherwise, or
so it seemed-of preparing % million South
Koreans to hold their own front lines. The fact
would seem to be that General Eisenhower does
not know how to clean up the war in Korea and
get out. But, excepting the dubious Macarthur
theory, no one else seems to know how to do
this, either.
On the domestic front, it was gratifying to
have General Eisenhower refuse to campaign
with manufactured words" such as Trumanism
and Pendergastism. These and other generalities
have been worked hard by politicians in recent
campaigns, but they serve only to confuse the
issues and make them more difficult. It will be
a good thing if General Eisenhower can stick by
his guns on this matter. --
Some of his other domestic views as
expounded at Kansas City, leave something to be
desired. He said, for instance, that the Repub-
licans "are going to do everything possible to
encourage every individual to exercise his own
courage, to proceed to take risks if needed, but
to 60 forward and to continue to build this
United States into the thing it can be, something
so free SO shining that think none of our
imaginations have yet even caught glimmer
of it."
This conjures up truly glowing image Of
what rugged free enterprise can be like. few
deep breaths LATER however, one finds the
candidate firmly pledging that there will be no
Republican tampering with the 80 per cent price
support lava measure that is something less
than the essence of free enterprise, but which is
dear to the hearts of the farm voters.
It would be unfair, however, to belabor
General Eisenhower excessively with this rod.
He is not the first political candidate nor will he
be the last, to discover that consistency and sue
cessf,A politicking are not necessarily one and
the same thing.