Evening star., 1955-01-23

Sees Democrat Leaders
Defying Buruch Axiom
Writer Soys Opposition Chiefs
Misrepresent Vice President
BY Fronk R. Kent
The present Democratic strategy b
In conflict with one Of the soundest
statements Of the party,s oldest. most
regular. most generous and disttn-
guished member-Bernard M. Bar1ich.
A good many years ago. Mr.. Baruch.
in d speech before the War College In
Washington. made o comment that has
been widely printed. often quoted and
never disputed. Every man." said Mr..
Baruch. has right 10 his own opin-
ion. but no man has right 70 be
wrong In his facts"
Yet In two outstanding instances the
Democratic National Committee has
violated this indisputable Baruch
axiom. One Is In the matter OF the
Dixon Yates contract. Stephen Mitch
ell. former chairman Of the national
committee, started this controversy on
with the insinuation that President
Eisenhower had espoused this contract
because one OF its heneficiaries would
be Bobby" Jones, an old friend Of
Mr.. Eisenhower and very sman stock
holder in the Dixon-Ya concern.
After Mr.. Eisenhower spoke, Mr..
Mitchell hastily retreated from this
position and his contemplate innuendo
has not been repeated. However. the
Dixon Yates opposition. inspired by the
Democratic committee. has continued
to distort and rnisrepresent the facts
to an extraordinary degree. 1t COM
pletely avoids the only real issue in
the fight which is the large one be-
tween the advocates of expanded public
power operation and ownership and
those who do not believe In that ex-
pansion.
The other instance in which the
Democratic committee. now headed
by Paul Butler, is proceeding in dis
regard of the facts is In the organ
lied and vicious attack upon Vice
President Richard Nixon, who was,
perhaps, the most effective Repub-
lican campaigner in the 1854 cam
paign. The charge against Mr.. Nixon
is that he had indicted the whole
Democratic Party as "the party OF
treason" It turns out that Mr.. Nixon
did no such thing. 1t was Senator Nc
Carthy who used that phrase--not
Mr.. Nixon. It turns out that Mr..
- 80 fsaa TIA
cratic Party as whole although he
did accuse the preceding Democratic
administrations as being soft" to-
ward Communists and having failed
to prevent communistic infiltration in
the State Department.
It is not possible for anyone with
any regard for the truth to question
the correctness of MIR. Nixon's state
ment on these matters. Certainly. no
one now doubts that II 1t had not been
for Mr.. Nixon, then q member Of the
House Committee on Un-American
Activities, Alger Hiss would never
have been indicted or convicted. With
equal certainty, under the Truman
administration. treatment Of the FBI
revealed facts about the late Harry
ICAICI WkAVG uAA0 JkAG ON1ACA4NG "a ALE
treachery to the United States consti-
tuted an inexcusable laxity or stu
pidity, or collusion--or all three. At
no time has the Democratic COMMITTEES
attempted to deal with these mat
ters on realistic basis.
On the contrary, apparently It has
elected to disregard the facts and
factual denials and continue to repeat
Its reckless charges as though they
had been substantiated instead Of hav-
Ing been discredited. Thus, 1t seems
that we are going through the next
20 months with the Democrats
trying, through sheer noise and repe-
tition, to make their charges agains,
Mr.. Nixon and the Dixon-Yates affair
stick. regardless of the facts. It hardly
seems that they can be successful
One hesitates. of course, to disregard
the great power Of skillful mass propa-
ganda. Nevertheless, to make q CASE
as false as that against Mr.. Nixon and
as utterly destitute of honesty as that
against the Dixon-Yates contract stand
up Is to concede that truth is of nc
avail and the way to succeed is tc
bear false witness.
OF course, 1t Is foolish to predict
what Congress as evenly divided al
the present one. and as fully sat-
urated with presidential politics. will
do. However. 1t does seem safe to say
that II tactics so clearly founded on
fiction and so overwhelmingly favored
with partisanship really can pay. then
two rather unpleasant things will be
established: Cd That the obvious
philosophy of former Chairman
Mitchell and his successor. Chairman
Butler. that 1t is better to be clever
than to be right. is sound (2) that
Mr.. Baruch's ideal that every man has
right to his own opinion. but no
man has right to be wrong In his
facts" makes him just ito use one of
his favorite expressions) an "old
china egg" who does not know what
he is talking about. Definitely, the
record refutes that