Evening star., 1952-02-12
The Political Mil
Kefuuyer Fast Becoming
Hair Shirt for Trumun
Senator Firing Both BorreIs
AT Federal Corruption
By Gould Lincoln

AT Federal Corruption
By Gould Lincoln
Senator Kefauver, announced candi-
date for the Democratic presidential
nomination. Is fast becoming President
Truman's hair shirt. Not only has the
Tennessee Senator entered the race for
the presidential nomination which Mr..
Truman may want for himself, but he
has opened up with both barrels at
corruption In the administration. From
q Republican this might have been
expected. From Democratic Senator
who has voted 80 per cent with the Fair
Deal. it is q considerable Jolt.
Mr.. Kefauver inserted the knife with
skill and turned 1t In the wound In his
'tlrst speech IN New Hampshire. where
he faces the President In the March il
primary in the contest for delegates to
the Democratic National Convention as
wen Is for popular support. He did not
use tie Presidents name. He merely
suaeestea that the moral environment Of
the early years cf successful politician
even preSidentA colored the rest Of
his career. No one doubted he was
shooting at the e5kly association Of Mr..
Truman with the em repdergast ma
chipe ID Kansas CITY and the fact that
Mr.. Truman had been picked for the
Senate by old Tom himself = was the
kind of attack which q reply from Mr..
Truman would only give greater and
wider publicity. AT the same time It
seemed designed for just such purpose,
Long Series of Primaries. !
BY no means has Mr.. Truman heard
the last of Mr.. Kefauver. however. The
Senator has entered and will enter q
long series of these presidential pri-
maries. He is In Illinois, where the
Truman supporters first put Senator
McMahon of Connecticut in the race
and then yanked him out. He is PLAN
ming to make a contest for delegates
in Massachusetts,, against the Truman
supporters. AS in his New Hampshire
speech, Mr.. Kefauver may be expected
to tackle the President on his reference
to State primaries fol. presidential pref
erence as "eyewash" wherever he is
entered.
The White House has endeavored to
explain away this "eyewash" statement
but without too much success. The
President, the White House says, did
not mean to reflect on State primaries
he is, in fact, supporting Nation
wide primary system for the nomina-
ton of presidential candidates. He was,
however. making light of these State
primaries in view of his belief that he
could be renominated whether he en-
tered the primaries or not. and so Mr..
Kefauver understood.
Referring to the investigation which
he and his Senate crime committee
made in 1850, Senator Kefauver said
they had found that "some criminal
gangsters and unethical people had
wormed their way into government at
all levels-this was and still Is sapping
some of the vitality and strength from
our democratic processes"
''Unlabeled" Bill Of Goods.
Mr.. Truman, however, is not the only
target of Senator Kefauver. Writing in
the current issue of Look magazine, Mr..
Kefauver refers to Gen. Dwight D.
Eisenhower as an "unlabeled bill Of
goods" and predicts the general will be
defeated by the Democrats, presumably
by Kefauver himself, if the Republicans
should nominate Eisenhower for Presi-
dent. He charged that with Gen, EiSen-
hover as its nominee, the Republican
Party would be the same, except for a
new front. He warned that an Eisen.
hover election would almost certainly
mean the election Of a Republican Con-
gress-which he said the voters would
not permit even though they liked Gen.
Eisenhower personally. And for full
measure, he said that if by some chance
Gen. Eisenhower should scrape by, the
Republicans in Congress would soon
wreck the foreign policy for which Gen.
Eisenhower has stood--a foreign policy
which Senator Kefauver said is "the
same as that advocated by the Demo-
Gratis since before Pearl Harbor."
While Mr. Kefauver needles the Presi-
dent regarding his personal political
plans, Stuart Symington, who held many
important posts in the Truman admin
istration and who. is now back in st.
Louis, is apparently taking part-in a
different way-ins the same game. He
is reported as saying he will run for the
Senate Democratic nomination in Mis-
souri, If Mr.. Truman gives him the green
light. The President has been making
his own possible candidacy for the Sem
ate in that State mystery.