Evening star., 1952-04-24
District 6. 0. P. Hears
Taft Blast Corruption
In Campaign Speech
By Crosby S. Moves

dtor 1a1C, bringing his campaign
here with biting attack against
corruption in Government.
The Ohio Senator's speech in
Constitution Hall contained few
surprises for supporters who filled
the auditorium and part of the
balcony. Pursuing familiar pat
tern, Senator Taft struck out at
high taxes and arbitrary Federal
authority. If elected, he said, he
would limit Government spending
to SIS billion year.
What was surprising, in view of
the local Republican picture, was
the literature distributed at the
meeting by local Taft boosters.
This literature urged all District
Republicans to hurry down to-
registration headquarters at 1903.
H street NV. and get their names
on the G. o. P. registration rolls.
It listed the qualifications: Re-
publican; over 81 years; resident
Of the District for at least a year; |
no voting rights elsewhere. Then
it added the surprising statement: /.
If you register and qualify as
a District voter you can vote for
a Taft delegate in your precinct
election
No Taft Delegates.
The strange thing about the
statement was that, so far as any,
one admits up to this point, there
are no Taft delegates as such
running in the District primary.
There will be delegates of the Re-
publican State Committee. There
will also be delegates announced
as favoring Gen. Eisenhower.
The Eisenhower people have
been charging all along that the
State Committee supported Sena-
tor Taft, privately, if not openly.
The spokesmen of the committee
have denied this. They claim
that, whatever the personal incli-
nations of its membership, the
delegates it sends to the national
convention will go uninstructed
for any candidate. It has been
argued that the wise course for
the District delegation is to swing
its weight behind the popular
party choice.
The wording of the publicity
handed out by the Taft-for- -Presi- j
dent Citizens Committee seems to
support the claim of the Eisen- =,
hover Club that the State Com S
mittee candidates in the primary !
are representing the Senator.
The impression was given added
emphasis by Senator Taft himself. Il
"You have the right" he told the
audience. 'to decide whether the
six candidates from the District s
should support me or support
some one else" The right has
never been conceded by the Old
Guard G. o. P. here.
There was no evidence that
either Of these statements were
sanctioned by the State commit
tee. Questioned about them after
the speech, Committee Chairman
Joseph c. McGarraghy shrugged
of the matter.
Senator Taft, appearing fresh
despite recent campaign tours,
emerged in the course of his
speech as a strong advocate of
air power. The Air Force" he
said, "ic the key to world Sc
curity."
Criticising the idea of matching
the might of Soviet Russia with
land forces, he added:
Control of the air is the one
thing that can protect this coun-
try and the only assurance of
peace. The only deterrent to Rus
sian aggression is our ability to
bomb Russia with atom bombs"
The candidate said that the
present administration had failed
to develop the overwhelming air
superiority of which this country
is capable. The stalemate in Ko-
rea, he said, is the result of our
loss of air supremacy.
Mr.. Taft also spoke of corrup-
tion in Government, high taxes
and the evils of extending the
authority of the Federal Gov
ernment.
Steel Seizure Assailed.
OF President Trumans recent
seizure of the strike-ridden steel
industry. he declared:
1.-THE President has apparently
developed a new theory-that the
President himself can seize power.
He has seized the steel mills with
no shred of statutory authority
and no pretense of any. 1t is
a favorite New Deal theory-this
idea that the President, when
ever he feels that an emergency
exists, can lift his powers by
their own bootstraps.
IF a President can seize steel
mills to stop a strike, he can just
as well seize unions. I don't see
why he cart also seize the news
papers and radio stations as he
suggests. If he did that he would
be striking at the greatest guar
antee of liberty that we have :"
Senator Taft observed that the
President had threatened to call
special sessions of Congress to
get cues restored in his military
budget.
II can only say that Congress
still has certain powers. and I
don't think he's going to get that
money he said.
Mr.. Taft recalled the case of
Charles of England, whose en-
ployment of arbitrary measures in
tax matters led him to the scaf-
fold.
"Of course, don't think any,
thing like that could happen to
Mr.. Truman" he added, be
cause it seems to me that he's lost
his head already"
In answer to the questions from
the audience. Mr.. Taft made the
q