Milford chronicle., 1952-03-14
COMMENTATORS OFTEN SPEAK
THEIR PERSONAL FEELINGS BUT
THEY SEEM NEAR AGREEMENT
ON PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

THEY SEEM NEAR AGREEMENT
ON PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
A person who makes practice of read
ing the political commentators and prognOs-
ticGt0rs can find just about any forecast he
is looking for. These publicists, like all the
rest Of us, have personal prejudices and
hopes which cannot help but color their writ
ings. Feeling is running very high now as
the political campaigns gain momentum and
the time for choosing the candidates draws
near. But in reading the prophecies of things
to come, there are certain areas in which
there is more and more agreement on the
part of writers of all schools of thought.
Summed up briefly, these are:
First, Senator Taft will be the Republi-
can candidate 1t isn't in the bag by any
means, but he is far ahead of the field. His
organization is model of determined, pro-
fesSiOnal efficiency, and the Senator has
drawn enthusiastic crowds and made an ex-
cellent impression during his extensive trav-
els about the country The General Eisen-
hover boom is in the political dOldrumS; it
lacks both direction and momentum. Whe-
ther it is possible to breathe new life into it
is the big question. Some of the Generals
keenest supporters have warned that his
chances are dead unless he acts decisively
on his own behalf He has shown no incli-
nation to do that
OGCOuu, GISSluSuL TRUMAN VIII run
again. There are various reasons why this
idea is now current in most quarters. No
other available Democrat, in the view of the
Administration experts, has what it takes
the Kefauver candidacy, for instance, has
aroused much less general enthusiasm than
was hoped by his friends. Thus Admins
tratiOn insiders are in a position to argue
that it is the Presidents clear duty to run
again and save the country from the COP.
On past occasions, Mr.. Truman has intimat-
ed that there is no one he would rather run
against than Senator Taft. Moreover, the
President has very strong sense of hiStOr-
ical destiny, and seems totally convinced that
his fair deal program, spurned as it has been
by Congress, is what the people want and
will vote for. He has a definite program and
he will fight for it. Finally, he may feel that
the disclosures of. graft and corruption in
administrative agencies make it necessary
for him to seek personal justification from
the voters.
Third, if it is a Taft-Truman contest, the
decision will be fairly close one. After
1948, no one with good sense discounts Mr.
Truman's abilities as a vOte-getter. And
no one knows just how many Truman votes
have been lost because Of the scandals, high
taxes, the conduct of the Korean War, the
communists in-the-gOvernment allegations,
the battle over Secretary AcheSOn, the Mac
Arthur dismissal, and so on. The balance of
power is held by independent voters who
account for perhaps 80 per cent of the total.
If Republican is to win, he must swing
that vote. The Democrats have been swing
ing it for years, but there are indications
that thousands of Independents may switch
this year.
That is the concensus today, among the
people who are considered political experts
and who, for all the mistakes thew make are
right more often than they are wrong. Be-
fore long we'll know how right or wrong
they are this time.
NSONS
BUNK HAS REACHED SATURATION
POINT"
Unfortunately many people tend to ac-
cept as gospel statements from government
spokesman although they may be at wide
variance with fact. For example, the Presi-
dents council of Economic Advisors, some
times called the Presidents Captive econO-
mists" warns that ''Year by year, control
OF the market is passing more largely into
the hands of the large corporations.
The process of expansion of large corpora
tiOns by swallowing smaller firms continues,
and the concentration of economic power be-
comes more intense"
And again, the Federal Trade Commits
sion, in report to Congress in the summer
of l949, warned that I" if nothing is done
to check the growth in concentration, either
the giant corporations will ultimately take
over the country or the government will be
impelled to step in )"
Actually there is less concentration now
than so years ago. Reliable studies reveal
that small business activity shows an in-
crease numerically and in proportion to pop