Evening star., 1952-01-26
The Political Mill
The Political Min
Half Of Trumun. Friends
Soy Yes Half Soy No
Statement on Cundidocy Plans
Moy Have Much Significance
BY Gould Lincoln

President Truman, at his press con-
ference Thursday, when he was QueS-
toned about his future political plans.
made statement that. in addition to
being fact, may have much significance.
His comment was that he did not have
to enter any Of the presidential pri-
maries if he were going to be candi-
date for reelection. In other words, II
he were going to run, he could have the
nomination. It would take an extreme
cptimist to challenge this statement.
The President clearly can command
the support of The State delegations to
the Democratic National Convention
next July-with the exception of those
of some of the Southern StateS-n he
wants them to vote for him. Leader
after leader of the party in the North
and West has publicly said that he be-
lieyed the President should run and that
he would be the strongest candidate the
party could put in the field.
Mr.. Truman, however, still has not
said that he intends to become candi-
date, and half of his friends are conf
dent he will say 'yes" at future time,
and half of them are equally sure he
viii say mo" He has told no one, he
says, the decision he has made. :"
It may be that the President will give
heed to the provision Of the Constitu-
tior which says that President shall
have only two terms in the White House
--or their equivalent. It is true that
under the language Of the two-term
amendment to the Constitution Mr..
Truman is specifically exempted from
this limitation. But the President may
recognize the spirit of the Constitution
for the amendment is now part OF
the Constitution-as we'll as the letter.
If he does, he will not become .
candidate.
Mr.. Truman, at the same press con-
ference, made another ggestion--tnat
the method of nominating presidential
candidate should be drastically amended
by providing for national nominating
primary. In other words. that instead OF
the present State presidential preferen-
tial primarieS-only Is In number--ard
instead of the State and district conVen-
tiens to elect delegates to the national
conventions of the political parties, the
voters in every State Of the Union should
vote on the same day their preference
for the candidates for presidential noni-
nation.
Such a system would not only do away
with State lines and sectional prejudiceS,
but 1t would make unnecessary the pres
ent national conventions, except to write
party platforms and to ratify perfume
torily the nominations already made by
the voters. Mr.. Truman. as he said, is
not the first man to promote such
system of nominations. Woodrow Wilson.
as Mr.. Truman said, advocated the plan.
Bills to carry it out have been offered
in Congress, but none of them ever got
anywhere. A system of that kind would
knock the party bosses in the States into
a cooked hat. The bosses like to have a
say about who the party nominees are to
be, and they are not going to relinQuiSh
that power without fight. y
Several decades ago, the plan for
presidential preferential primaries was
put forward as a reform. Particularly
was the demand made for some kind Of
change after the 1912 Republican Ma
tiohal Convention, which the party
bosses so controlled as to give the preSi-
Dental nomination to President Taft and
to ditch former President Theodore
Roosevelt But the State preferential
primaries, from which so much was ex-
pected, have not proved as beneficial
as their promoters hoped. Indeed, some
States have discarded them.
Mr. Truman's own statement-that he
could have the presidential nomination
if he wishes it. without going into any
primary-is just another evidence of the
power of boss control, when it comes to
nominating conventions. No sitting Pres
ident of the United States can success.
fully be denied denomination if he de-
Sires it,