Evening star., 1954-04-18
Democrats Meeting
To Repeat Old Show
Speakers Will Strike
All Fumiliur Notes
By Fronk R. Kent

BY Fronk R. Kent
Early in May the Democratic Ma
tional Committee will meet in WASH
ington and another one of those en-.
thusiaStic So-much-a-plate party din
ners will be held. It will be managed
by Chairman Mitchell and the major
speeches will be made by Adlai E.
Stevenson and Harry S. Truman. It
is also believed that Mrs Franklin
Roosevelt may be induced to say a
few words.
The general idea is to tear the Re-
publican Party to pieces and shoot the
Eisenhower administration full of
holes. Young Franklin Roosevelt. the
most eager aSpirant for Governor
New York has ever known. undoubtedly
will be on hand. But Brother James
is not expected to be there. The CIO
boss, Walter Reuther. will play his
usual prominent part and good many
of the intellectuals from the Americans
for Democratic Action will lend weight
and grace to the tables. There also
will be numerous Democratic members
of the House and Senate, among them
many "upjumpers" and "breast beaters"
of the Monroney, Douglas and Hum
phrey type. 1t is also well understood
that the aged but spritely ex-Vice
President Alben Barkley. probably the
most effective tub thumper of them
all, and now. despite his rs years. run
ming like race horse for the Senate
in Kentucky. will figure we'll up on
the program.
The project is healthful one and
may serve useful purpose. For one
thing. the opposition party should live
up its function of opposing. To
gather for couple of days of concen-
trated criticism of the administration
is what is expected Of it, and no one
is justified in complaining. OF course,
it will be completely partisan affair
and there Is not likely to be much
new about it. For nearly all of the
scheduled speakers have been firing at
Ike and his program more or less reg
ularly for much more than a year.
Nevertheless, Arthur Schlesinger, jr..
and the other left-wing speech writer's
can be expected to present a product
that will look new. even if it isn't
From the administration standpoint
all of this may not be without profit.
For one thing, criticism of the party in
power easily could reveal some sins Of
omission or commission which should
and could-be corrected. For an
other it may be helpful in making
clear the kind of campaign which the
Democrats will make next fall. 1t will
give the opposition headlines for few
Gays. but there will also be the op-
portunity to reply, and if the attack
would favor the administration--if it
has sense enough to take advantage
of it.
In this connection. the fact must
also be considered that the scheduled
Democratic orators are not exactly
fresh. They have been vociferously
assailing General Ike and all his
acts with great vigor and force since
the. Inauguration. There is little they
can say that is new, and some of their
better speakers have gone more than a
little stale. Certainly that is true of MI.
Truman and his give m-hell- Harry"
type of eloouence. 1t is little sad that
to some extent it seems also to be tue
of the good Adlai whose oratory has
been SO highly lauded by the left-Wing
columnists and commentators. Even
his most ardent admirers do not regard
his last two speeches-in Miami and
Charlotte-as quite UP to the mark
X
Whether this is due to the fact that
his candidacy for denomination in 1855
is now wholly transparent or because
some of those gifted ghost writer's oil
the 1852 campaign were not available,
or because of his kidney trouble now
happily over. or for some other reason.
is impossible to tell But the fact
remains that neither of these speeches
was what had been expected of him.
and it was something of strain on
the Democratic publicity forces to
Whoop it up. In the first place. they
distinctly were not on that high
plane" for which his admirers so
regularly applauded him. On the con-
trary. his criticism of the President
and his administration were down on
the level of the routine Democratic
politician. It made him sound like
the ordinary bleating, defeated can
didate
Also. there was a somewhat lower
form OF humor than Mr.. Stevenson
usually provides. He has, it Is true,
been urged by some of his friends to
cut out his customary punS and witt
cisms altogether They argue that these
tend to rivet the Little Joker" name
upon him and that that is not politi-
cally good. The recent deterioration in
his humor may be due to this friendly
advice. Or it may be just because Mr..
Stevenson does not find things quite as
funny as they used to be. Anyhow,
that sentence in one of his recent
speeches, Come on. eggheads-you
have nothing to lose but your yolks,"
does not seem quite mature enough
or even new enough-for a man run
ming for the presidency. However, 1t
made great hit in the higher echelons
of the Americans for Democratic Ac-
tion-though why is hard to see. Sena-
tor Humphrey can be funnier than that
without irving