Evening star., 1952-06-08
Democrats Are CIineing
To Victory Formula
Writer Sees Potential Nominees
Sticking to New Deal Pottern
By Fronk R. Kent

It is interesting to note that of the
five aspirants for the Democratic presi-
dental nomination only one stands for
anything except the New Deal and Fair
Deal policies. That one-Senator Rus
sell OF Georgia-strongly opposes MIR.
Truman's so-called civil rights program
but otherwise is mostly in line with
the administration.
However, because he Is from the
South, Senator Russell Is the least like
ly to be nominated. For the rest-Har.
riman, Kefauver, Stevenson and Bark
ley-they are all of pattern, COM
pletely New Deal and Fair Deal. And
say So What this means Is that the
millions of Democrats who are-and
have been for long time-unhappy
about the socialistic direction in which
the party has been headed for nearly 20
years; who are deeply disturbed by the
appalling condition of the national
finances; who are sickening by the wide
spread corruption that has been re-
vealed in the Truman administration.
again are going to have no choice in
November except to stay home or vote
for the Republican candidate.
Actually, not all of the Democratic
availables themselves sincerely believe
in the Roosevelt Truman policies. Some
of them have a deep diStruSt of the
direction in which they are being car
ried and a cordial distaste for part Of
the record which they have helped
build. Nevertheless, every one of these
aspirantS is prepared to stand on
platform which will laud both the
Roosevelt and Truman administrations
to the limit; insist that they have been
without flaw; minimize and excuse the
revealed graft and corruption; ignore
the fact that the Federal finances are
dangerously out Of control: indorse poll
appallingly swollen Federal payroll, in
crease the mounting costs Of an un-
precedentedly inefficient Federal bu-
reaucracy, open wider and wider the
Treasury spigots from which the peo-
pies money has been pouring.
The reason these normally upright
gentlemen are prepared to accept such
a platform, which they can only de-
fend by ignoring the facts and de-
nouncing those who present them. is
because OF their political aspirations.
The truth is Democratic politicians
everywhere-except in the South-are
grimly holding on to the formula with
which they have been victorious in the
last four elections-and which they
somewhat shakily hope will pull them
through once more. The basis of this
formula is the gigantic Federal job
holding machine to which are now at
tached more than million jobholders.
This is a tremendous voting force
potent in nearly every State. To it must
be added the vote Of organized labor.
the bosses of which haYe become
dominant in the Democratic Party ma
tionally and are close personally and
politically to the President.
Other component parts of the formula
are the Negro vote in the pivotal States
of the North and Middle West and the
farmers whose subsidy demands have
been so freely granted as to cause some
farm leaders, such as Allan B. Kline.
head of the American Farm Bureau
Federation, recently to express the
view that it had been overdone and was
no longer in the interest of either the
farmers or the country. There must
also be added the professional liberals"
of the ADA. At any rate. that is
the formula to which the Democratic
aspirants cling. 1t almost failed them
in 1948 and few contend the party has
/. not been weakened since in all these
special groups as well as with the people
as a whole. Nevertheless, there is
nothing to do but cling to the formula
and clinging to 1t they certainly are.