Evening Star Newspaper, November 29, 1936, Page 31

Editorial Page Special Articles Part 2—12 Pages SPAIN'S RAW MATERIALS LURE HITLER AND IL DUCE Franco Undertook to “Reorganize” Dis- tribution in Return for Their Un- . equivocal BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. ERMANY and Italy do not in- tend to allow the European democraties, with the co- operation of the United Btates, the time necessar to bring their “peace organization” plans to fruition. The steel curtain is draw- ing closer around Russia, Great Brit- ain, their associates and allies. The recognition of Gen. Francisco Franco before the actual occupation of Madrid and the announcement of the German-Japanese “understand- ing” are the last two moves placing before Europe an accomplished fact. These two developments were fully expected by the chancelleries of the non-authoritarian states. Their tim- ing was the only surprise. The hasty recognition of Gen. Franco's junta as the de facto gov- ernment of Spain has revealed to London and Paris another angle of the understanding between the Span- ish “Jefe” and the other two dictators. ‘That angle is the economic agree- ment on which was based the support' given the head of the Spanish junta by Mussolini and Hitler. Heretofore it has been assumed that tn exchange for the strong political and military assistance which made FPranco's victory possible the German and the Italian dictators obtained as- surances that the Spanish ports in Morocco and the Balearic Islands would be placed at the disposal of the central powers in the event of & war. German and Italian experts ‘were knowrnt to have made surveys at Ceuta and Melilla for the eventual transformation of these two ports into naval bases. The Island of Majorca 1s to Become the principal air base for Italian aviation. Italian troops, esti- mated by some neutral observers at around 10,000 men, are reported to be concentrated in Majorca. Franco’s Ranks Thinned. Franco's armies are getting breath- less. They are excellent fighters, but all are mercenaries—foreign legion and Moroccan tribesmen—whose ranks have been thinned by the many months of relentless fighting. For the time being, Franco has no means | of replenishing his ranks from the population of Spain. Catalonia is the hotbed of socialism and communism in Spain. In order to become the unchallenged ruler of the country that important section of Spain must be brought into submis- sion. And since it is probable that Franco's tried legionnaires may not be able to do the job, the central powers have hastened their recogni- tion of the military leader, thus being | In a better position to come to his aid more effectively than if he were a mere revolutionary chieftain. Hitler and Mussolini are anxious to | have the Spanish revolution liquidated at the earliest possible moment. They both need the raw materials which exist in great quantities in the Iberian Peninsula and which at.the present moment aré almost exclusively con- trolled by Great Britain. According to the latest reports, Franco, in his anxiety to obtain the unequivocal sup- port of the two strongest military powers of Europe, agreed to “recog- nize” the distribution of Spain’s raw materials in favor of Germany and Italy, and putting an end to British tmonopoly. Spain, despite the riches which its| toil contains, has remained almost | exclusively an agricultural state and Its mines were exploited for the bene- | fit of the foreigner. The industrial countries of Europe took good care to prevent the industrial development of | the country. The finest lead ore in the world, without which British industry would be placed in an inferior position, is taken from the mines of Oviedo, Murcia, Almeria, Huelva and Seville. British Own Resources. Coal, equally necessary to Italy’s national defense and industry, is to be found in large quantities in Oviedo, Leon, Valencia and Cordoba. So are iron and copper. Sulphates of soda exist—partly unexploited—in Burgos.. And all these riches are actually in the hands of British industrialists. Pending other developments which would place sources of raw materials in the hands of the “have-nots” the Fascist states are satisfied, for the time being at least, with obtaining tneir'nupphes from Spain. Of course, they realize that in the event of an international conflagration, their lines of communication with their new ally might be endangered by the French and the British fleets. And that danger is rapidly being mini- mized by the construction of Italy’s Dew navy in the Mediterranean. ‘The British are worried about this latest and somewhat unexpected de- velopment, but helpless. With the advanced methods of production in the German factories and the cheaper Support. labor in Italy and in Germany, thesé two countries would become serious competitors in the world markets if they have access to Spain’s raw ma- terials. Technically, the Wilhelmstrasse dip- lomats are correct when they state that there is no alliance with Japan. There exists, however, the same parallelism of interests which brought the Reich and Italy together. For the past two years the intel- ligence services of Europe and Amer- ica have been reporting close co-op- eration between Japan and Germany. German specialists in chemical war- fare, airplane constructors and naval architects from German naval yards and airplane factories have been sent to Japan since 1934 to teach the Japanese the latest developments in these branches of warfare. German fiyers have been instructing young Japanese aviators, while engineers from Krupp have been assigned to the ordnance departments of the Tokio war and navy ministries. At one time, about 18 months ago, there were something like 165 Ger- man specialists in Japan. Today their number is said to have quadrupled. Furthermore, in order to show his es- teem for the valiant Japanese nation, Hitler decreed two years ago that the Japanese be considered by the Ger- mans as honorary Aryans. Covers Two Emergencies. The community of interests between Japan and the Reich covers two pos- sible emergencies. It is based on an understanding that if either of the two countries becomes involved in a war against the Soviet republics the other immediately will engage Russia in a war on its own front. This agreement is not of recent | date. It is about 18 months old. It | is because Germany was not prepared | to embark on such an adventure that the Japanese, twice in the course of | the last year and a half, have post- poned their attack against the Soviet forces in Siberia. The Rhine had not | been remilitarized and thé German | military machinery was not in a posi- | tion to engage in an aggressive war. The other possible emergency is a | European war involving Great Britain. | Despite the empire’s lack of prepara- | tion, the Berlin government is worried about the possibility of Britain enter- ing the European arena and taking along with her a number of smaller nations such as Turkey, Greece and possibly Yugoslavia and Rumania, merely because of the legend which still exists in Europe that Britain is invincible. As long as the British government is concerned with only one front, it may yield to the pressure of public opinion and try to stop the aggressive intentions of the authoritarian states. But the day when Britain positively gxows that in the event of its becom- g involved in a war in Europe, the possibility of an attack in the Pacific must also be considered, the chances are that the British public will bring no pressure on its government to “save” the democracies of the world. The actual terms of the Japanese- German understanding concerning the Pacific are, of course, a matter of conjecture. Nobody in London or in Washington can say that he knows the details of that agreement. There are sufficient indications, however, to Justify the assumption that the Japa- nese have agreed to move their naval and air forces against the British possessions of Hongkong and Singa- pore if Great Britain becomes en- gaged in a European conflict. Warning to Great Britain. Whether this assumption is correct or not, ofly the future will tell. But the fact remains that the announce- mgnt of the German-Japanese under- standing at the present moment has served as an indirect warning to Great Britain to consider well before decid- ing to cross Messrs. Hitler and Musso- lini, The three “have-nots” are together at the present moment, challenging the democracies, or what is left of the democracies of the world. They have surrounded them with a net of steel. The machinery of democracy, which has to take into consideration rily is much slower than the propelling power of the “one-man” governments, where everything is decided by a small group of men. And, while in London, Washington and Paris diplomats are figuring on checkmating the aggressiveness of the three dictatorship by some kind of collective understanding to limit armaments—to set in motion again the clogged wheels of international trade-Berlin, Rome and Tokio are going straight ahead with their plans to destroy the shackles which until now have made them second-class powers. . (Copyright, 1936,) Alaskans Looking for Protection - Of Their 2,500-Mile Coast Line FAIRBANKS, Alaska (#).—Possible establishment of frontier defenses, particularly air bases, is a major topic of discussion today among Alaskans. With the U. 8. Army and Navy fostering “alr mindedness” within the territory and a Oon(rusionfl-promilqd appropriation for creation of a new naval district—the seventeenth— Alaskans look forward to protection for their 2,500-mile coast line. Creation of sn Alaskan army and naval base has been strongly rumored here for months. Some of the reasons Alaskans ad- vance as to why the United States should be contemplating such a move are: Alaska is an. increasingly important fish-producing country. There are ofl fields in both the southwestern and northern areas of the territory. Some of the world’s richest metal supplies are in Alaska. ‘There is open water between Alaska and American owned islands in the Pacific. The Aleutian chain , goes farther West than new Zealand. ‘This would simplify movement of ‘warships from a base in Southwestern Alaska. banks is almost 2,000 miles closer to Japan than any costal city in the United States. Alaskans have enlisted the support of Brig. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, who two years ago led a squadron of 10 bombers {0 Fairbanks. Gen. Arnold recommends establishment of a full -tmm.!: Army defense wing at Fair- Rear Admiral Ernest J. King, U. 8. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics chief, says plans already have been formu- lated by the Navy for Alaska’s defense. Scot Sabbath Periled By Work on Sundays Action to safeguard Scotland’s day of rest was proposed at the conven- tion of Royal Burghs. A number of speakers expressed fear that the sand- tity of the Scottish Sabbath was im- periled by the extension of work on Sunday. i The Town Council of Oban proe posed a five-day week to give a secu- lar day of rest without encroaching on Sunday customs. Final action was Alaska occupies & strategic position 4s the air route to the Orient. Fair- B deferred until the convention next April. the pulse of public opinion, necessa- |, he Swdwy Star EDITORIAL SECTION WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 29, 1936. Justice Holmes to Dr. Wu BY THOMAS R. HENRY. ENGTHENING shadows of old days and old thoughts fluttered over the book-walled Washing- ton study. There a brave, lonely old man—one of the most penetrating minds of his generation—had come at last to the edge of the imcomprehensible eternity forever hidden behind the black curtains of the grave. His companions were a noble com- pany—Plato and Lucretius, Spinoza and Kant, Ovid and Homer. he in turn was contemplating, and each of them had been swept out of the shadows into the dark with these questions unanswered. ‘This old man had been all his lfe a fighter. He had fought with gun and bayonet in his youth. Through all his middle years he had fought the more merciless hosts of cant and sham and shallowness in the economic and political structure of America. Now, on the edge of the dark, he was fighting his own rationalizations and defending his own agnosticism against the will to believe. Chinese in Confidante. Strange thoughts came to him there in the shadowy study and among the grey stone walls and white farm houses of the Massachusetts coast where he spent his Summers. He needed a confidante for these thoughts and he found such in a far place—a 24-year- old Chinese law student and teacher 3,000 miles away. It was a curious contrast—youth and age, mind of Puritan and mind of Oriental, mind of sceptic and mind of idealist. But there were some points of contact. Both were lawyers interested in philosophy. Both were reading the same books. The old man was in- spired by the enthusiasm of the young men. The young man had taken the old man for his ideal in life. . So the late Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes of the United States Supreme Court confided to Dr. John C. H. Wu of Shanghai speculations which he never mentioned to his fellows or his closest intimates in Washington. After Justice Holmes’ death in 1935, Dr. Wu published some of the letters with the more personal paragraphs eliminated, in a Shanghai magazine, the T'ien Hsia Monthly. The journal was un- known in the United States. The letters have just been rescued Schopenaur and Hegel, | They had tried to | answer some of the questions which from oblivion by Harry C. Shriver of the staff of the law library of the Library of Congress in a velume con- | taining the uncollected letters and papers of the late justice, which were gathered from many sources by mem- bers of the law [library staff, and which is issued by the Central Book Co. of New York. Justice Holmes contemplated in- finity—man's significance in, it and his own significance in it. He bal- anced Plato and Spinoza against the ‘picture of the vastness and incom- | prehensibility of space and time fur- nished by the recent astronomers and against the revelations of the work- ing of man’s mind provided by the recent psychologists, particularly the | Behaviorists. The old certainties of his youth had crashed and he could evolve no new certainties. So, in a particularly contemplative moment, he wrote to Wu from his home on I street: “———of .course you refer to Goethe’s suggestion concerning our permanent existence. I hesitate a little to speak freely because of my impressions as to your beliéfs and hopes, but I will say a few words. I think men even now, and probably more in Goethe’s day, retain the the- ological attitude in regard to them- selves even when they have given it up for the cosmos. That is, they think of themselves as little gods over | against the universe, whether there is a big one or not. I see no warrant for it. I believe that we are in the universe, not it in us; that we are part of an unimaginable which I will call a whole, in order to name it; that our personality is a cosmic ganglion; that just as when certain rays meet and cross there is white light at the meeting point, but the rays go on after the meeting as they did before, 50 when certain other streams of en- ergy cross the meeting point can frame a syllogism or wag its tail. I never forget that the cosmos has the power to frame consciousness, intelligence, ideals, out of a like course of its en- ergy, but I see no reason to assume that these uitimates for. me are cosmic ultimates. Deoubts Impertance. “I frame no predicates about the cosmos. I suspect that all my ulti- mates have the mark of the finite upon them, but as they are the best I know I give them practical respect, love, etc., but inwardly doubt whether they have any importance except for us, and as something that with or without reason the universe has pro- | duced and therefore for the moment has sanctioned. We must be serious in order to get work done, but when the usual Saturday half holiday comes I see no reason why we should not smile at the trick by which nature keeps us at our job. It makes me enormously happy when I am encour- aged to believe that I have done some- thing of what I should have liked to do, but in the subterranean misgiv- ings I think, I believe that I think sincerely, that it does not matter much. This is a private talk, not to be quoted to others, for one is shy and sensitive as to one’s inner con- victions, except in those queer mo- ments when one tells the world as poets and philosophers do.” William James, the Harvard psy- chologist and philosopher, he tells ‘Wu, once asked him why he did not (Continued on Ninth Page.) Behind Spain’s Turmoil tion Submerged ifi Civil War for What ?—Ideals Trampled Under Foot—Victory to Be Hollow One. BY COUNT CARLO SFORZA, Former Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs ETURNING from Spain—from a Spain torn by the most hor- rible of civil wars—one has a great deal to say if one at- taches to the forces and symbols dominating the present atmosphere of the peninsula the meaning which is given to them by the average Amer- icans, British and French. But if one has studied for years the deep, mysterious forces of Spanish life, as I have studied them, one hesitates to speak. I have, in fact, refused to discuss these matters in Europe, al- though many came and tried to inter- view me after my last trip to a blood- soaked Spain. In Europe it is impossible to speak calmly about Spain. For the first time since the sixteenth century, European states and social interests have been forced to admit that what is happen. ing in Spain will deeply affect the whole of Europe. The trenches are ot in Spain; they divide, with an mn- visible line, all the minds and tenden- cies in Europe, where terrors and hatreds blind the spirits. ~Everybody in Europe is talking about Spain—yet nobody goes to the true roots of the tragedy. Ss;:i'l'hm for centuries has been and stil) is a world by itself, divided from Africa and from Eurcpe by the sea and by the Pyrenees. In this world are diverse regions, each a small but complete nation. Their peoples live side by side without mingling their characteristics, their traditions—some- times even keeping different languages. -This fact alone explains how it has been possible that the Arch-Catholic Basques have made a warm and sin- cere’alliance with the Republican Ma- drid government against the Catholic (at least, they style themselves s0) Tebel generals. The Basques have been promised virtual autonomy by the Madrid government, and they know that a military regime could live only if highly centralised—that with the generals they would lose all their liberties and traditions. In Spain—the world’s last oasis of for independence is such that it is always found in the struggle of the old Spanish provinces against the cen- tralizing tradition of Castile. Under the kings Castile was the symbol of centralization as against the opposite forces of the Spanish provinces. To- day, for the first time is history, Ma- drid admits the autonomies—but the centralizing rage finds its expression in the ambitions and rancors of the generals. It marches with them. Another seeming paradox is that while everybody is spedRing of the old glory of Spain—which certainly ex- ists—the reality is that, in spite of their great past, the peoples of the peninsula are still one of the youngest national aggregates of Europe. The strife of the Reconquista in the fif- teenth century was not a national war, but a series of western crusades. In Spain the crusades lasted not two centuries, as in Italy or France, but far longer. In a certain sense—we see it now so terribly—they are still in the, air. Cervantes, .in his immortal “Don Quixote,” tells the story of the “cap- tive” who has succeeded in escaping from the Moors on the opposite Af- rican coast and lands at last on the Spanish shores. Full of joy, he goes up to the first Spaniard he comes across, but—as he still wears a Mos- lem coat—the Spaniard runs off shouting: “Moros, Moros, to arms!” And the scene occurs more than a century after the flight of the last Moors from Spain. It is in the permanent youth of the key to this mystery: How is it that ina country where the laborers for cen- turies have been forced to lead the hardest sort of life (certainly harder than in imperial Russia) Marxism gained so few followers among the masses? Only one ‘of great socialistic European agitators was a lasting suc- cess in Spain, It was not Karl Marx, but the Russian philosopher of an- archy, Bakunin, The Spanish Anar- chist Federation sims simply at the Spaniards that one must look for the [ minimum of government, which may be offered by local trade unions. The anarchist temperament is the same—although certainly both would deny that it is the case—with Barce- lona workmen and with Gen. Franco. The only real difference is that the first ones have broken no oath and are struggling by themselves with no mer- cenary troops. It is only too natural that such a state of mind finds its natural reaction in violence, in phys- jcal force, without any pity putting a limit to cruelty. A great expert of civil wars, old Gen. Narvaez, was asked by a priest at his deathbed whether he was ready to forgive his enemies. “My enemies?” answered the dying general—“I have none; I have shot all of them.” All the Spaniards now seem imbued with the spirit of old’ Narvaez. Disagreement in General. All the Spaniards with whom I have recently spoken, in Spain or out of Spain. disagree among themselves on almost every ground, with true Spanish individualism. On one point gente” (we must destroy U the other side): one most frequently sides. Never was a civil war 50 ferocious. Indeed, we now have in Spain the impression that the era of naf or nationalistic wars is coming end, and that we are entering a period QGerman Hitlerians and anti-Hit- lerians. Both camps, in Italy and in Ger- many, are composed of men of our age. In Spain the struggle is between the Catholic Spain of the eighteenth experienced its evolution. Which ex- plains, by the way, why in Spain the phenomenon does not exist of lower middle classes, snarling, em- bittered, hating simultaneously the workmen and all form of social and mental aristocracy (as was the case with so many Fascists in Italy and Germany). This form of hatred is the only one not found now in Spain. I have heard Spaniards refer to the terrific civil war in Russia during the 1917-19 period as to the only possible parallel to their present tragedy. Of course, there is some similarity, but the efficiency, organization, intelli- gence and determination which so frequently existed in Russia at that time are not generally to be found in present-day Spain—perhaps be- cause of the excess of Spanish in- dividualism. Discipline Among Spaniards. In Spain, by the way, even the cus- tomary gifts of organizing power of communistic agitators seem greatly overrated. The Russians obey, when they do mnot conspire; the French Communists always obey, when the orders come from Moscow; the Spaniards, never. I hope I am not indiscreet in adding thatwtMe new Soviet Ambassador to Madrid, Rosen- berg (one of the most clever men they have now in Russia) has more than once expressed his painful sur- prise at the complete lack of discipline among communistic Spaniards. No; the terrific process which is going_ on in Spain is much too com- plex’to explain with the lazy formula, “the hand of Moscow.” It is in reality as if we were witnessing, prodigiously united into one new, single tragedy, the historic and psychological ele- ments which were at the basis of the ‘ Part Two ‘ D ’40 PRESIDENTIAL TIMBER SCARCE 1IN G. 0. P. RANKS If Party Retains Name and Identity Pres- ent Leaders May Be Back Numbers. Landon Dark Horse Four Years Ago. BY MARK SULLIVAN, INCE there is much talk about the future—whatever it may be—of the Republican party, let us look at it in terms of available leadership, available presi- dential possibilities for 1940. It is a rather futile speculation, for no one can guess what may happen during the next three years. There may be a political line-up, coinciding with & social one, so different from any- thing in the past that both the Re- publican party and the Democratic party (the Democratic party, that is, as distinct from the New Deal) might lose their names or their identities, or both. But dismissing all that, and assum- ing the Republican party retains its name and, roughly, its present identity, let us survey the material for the presidential nomination in 1940. I may as well give the answer first. Any survey of the material, as Vandenberg of Michigan seems in a class alone. . Possibly he may hate me for saying so, though it must be common knowledge to all who look over the field. It is no cheerful fate for any man to be looked on as & pres. idential possibility for 3! years ahead. The mere fact that he is so far in front carries perils. A man thus sit- uated may reduce his chance by being self-conscious and therefore cautious, or he may reduce his chance by re- fusing to be self-conscious, by being outspoken on all questions—in which. event he may turn some groups against | him. Anyhow, the judgment here ex- pressed is as of today onmly. It is | possible other material may emerge | during the coming three years. This | sometimes happens. | ceding 1936 few would have guessed | that Mr. Landon would be the nomi- | | nee this year; at that time he was the | comparatively unknown Governor of | what Democratic Generalissimo Far- ley called a “typical prairie State.” Vanderberg and Luck. Also, some of the other men now recognized as possibilities, but not now as far in front as Senator Vandenberg, eclipse him. So let Senator Vanden- berg forgive me, and look forward to whichever form of luck he prefers, whether to keep his presence emi- nence or to recede. But let us consider the whole gallery of Republicans who, as of today, hence. Just to be complete, start at the top. The Republican party has one living fosmer President, Mr. Hoover. But if he was regarded as unavailable in 1936, presumably he would have much the same unavailability in 1940, plus the further fact that Mr, Hoover at the time of the next presidential nominating convention will be 65 years old, and within a month or so of 66. That age is not a handicap, especially in & man as vigorous s& Mr. Hoover. But as of today it would seem that if the Republicans did not want Mr. Hoover this year they will not want him four years from now. Yet, regardless of availability for the presidential nomination, almost cer- tainly Mr. Hoover during the coming three years will supply much of the intellectual leadership against the | New Deal, just as he has supplied the best of the leadership of thought dur- ing the last three years. So: The Republican party has one living former President, and apparent- ly his availability is questioned. It has one living former Vice President, but the fact that the reader at this point is probably puzzling his mind to recall who it is, is evidence that Charles G. Dawes will not be in 1940, and is not even now an active political figure. His age is 71, and there are other rea- sons for passing him by as a possi- bility. In this computation I am merely trying to be complete. The Republicans have one man who ran for President and one man who ran for Vice President, the recently defeated Mr. Landon and Mr. Knox. Men who run for the presidency and are defeated sometimes get renomi- nated—but in the Republican party they never have. Bryan, after his defeat in 1896, got himself renomi- nated twice, in 1900 and 1908. But neither his nor any other experience suggests renomination of a defeated contender. And if Col. Knox did not win the vice presidency, he is hardly likely to be nominated for the presi- dency. - Material in the Senate. ‘Turn to the Senate to see what ma- terial it has for the Republican nom- ination in 1940. In that body, be- ginning with the session which meets next month, there will be 17 Repub- licans—that is, there will be 17 men who, in the official Congressional Di- rectory, will have the letter “R” fol- lowing their names. But as to about five of them, this is the extent of their Republicanism. « Senator Hiram Johnson of Califor- classes in Russia during the revolu- tion of 1917-18. Such being the magnitude of the sentiments and interests at stake, nothing is so idle as to ask: Who is going to win? In my opinion, nobody can win. One side or the other may sweep for- ward to apparens success. But theirs would remain an empty victory. In- deed, one may slready say that the Spanish general, with their lack of imagination and of any sense of his- tory, have killed the very ideals which they pretended to preserve ‘What is a nation—this ideal which the generals boasted to want stronger and more efficient? I do not know a better definition than the one given by Renan: “To have common glories in the past, a common will in the present; to have done great things together; to wish to do greater; one and the same program to carry out; *.* the existence of a nation is a daily plebiscite.” All this, alas, which honest Demo- crats like President Azana wanted (mingled, of course, with many blun- ders) to make a growing reality in Spain, has been brutally destroyed. Destroyed from two sides; by the brutality and selfishness of the gen- erals; by the mad individualist an- archy among too many of the work- men. of today, is likely to say that Senator | Three years pre- | may during the coming three years | might fairly be listed as material for | the presidential nomination four years | nia has not supported the Republican candidate for President in any of the last three elections. In 1932 he spoke for Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the recent election—indeed, during the last two or three years—Washiug- ton gossip said that Senator Johnson felt outraged by the New Deal, that he detested it. In the recent campaign he wag silent. * Senator Borah of Idaho did not support the Republican candidate for President in 1932 or 1936, though in neither election did he support Mr. Roosevelt. Senator Frazier of North Dakota in the recent election sup- ported Lemke. Senator Norbeck of South Dakota remained nominally Republican in the, recent campaign, but his Republicanism is very nomi- nal indeed. Senator Norris of Nebraska, in the coming session will not even have “R" behind his name; in the three last Presidential elections he opposed the Republican candidate, and finally, in the recent election, being himself up for re-election, he ran as an inde- pendent and will be so designated in the next Congressional Directory. There are left 12 Senators who can be called Republican in any true sense. Of these, two may be con- sidered possibilities for the next Re- publican Presidential nomination. The one whose name occurs first to practically all observers is Senator Vandenberg. He .is the leading Presidential possibility in the whole Republican party as it is today. He has already acquired much leadership in the party and in puolic thought. He was a most vigorous stump- speaker in the recent campaign. He | has—what is_important—the oppor- tunity to keep himself before the public during the coming‘four years. He is in the Senate, and of all the Repub- lican Senators he 1s tne most forceful speaker. In the Senate there is no rule of cloture that amounts to any- | thing; Mr. Vandenberg: can speak | when he pleases, on what topics he chooses. He has the brains and force |to lay out for himself a program of | spokesmanship about what the Re- | publican party should do. In this op- portunity to perform before the public eye lies much of Senator Vandenberg's availability. McNary as Possibility. In the Senate is one other Repub- lican who by some yardsticks and standards of qualification is a possi- bility for the Republican nomination in 1940. He is Senator McNary of Oregon. Admittedly, indeed decidedly, Mr. McNary is not a very orthodox | Republican. During the recent cam- paign, he himself being up for re- election, he made his fight mainly upon his own record, with very little allusion to the Republican Presiden- tial candidate, Gov. Landon. And the Senate record of his own, which Mr, McNary emphasized, included sup= port of, or sympathy with, much of the New Deal. These facts about Senator McNary might seem to dis= qualify him as an orthodox Repub= lican Presidenfial candidate. But it is precisely a possibility that the Re- publican party in 1940 may turn away from the othodox course and seek its candidates among other than orthodox Republicans. In that pos- | sibility lies the chance that Senator | McNary might emerge. We should not leave the Senate | without mentioning one more name. | In that body, beginning next month, | will be one Republican who is a new | Senator and who is quite young, only | 34. But this man has one extraordi- nary distinction. As a practically new | figure in politics, he got himself elected to the Senate this year by beating a Democrat, and for any Republican to beat a Democrat this Novembet is itself an outstanding distinction. Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge, jr., defeated Gov. Curley of Massachusetts. With the start given him by the almost unique record of a Republican, young in poli- tics, beating a seasoned Democrat in the year 1936, Mr. Lodge, if he does well in the Senate during the next three years, might conceivably be a formidable figure in 1940. Material in the House. In the House are 89 Republicans. Are there among these any possibili- ties for the Republican presidential nomination in 1940? Nearly all these 89 were in the House last year and before. None of them figured as pos- sibilities for the presidential nomina- tion in the Republican National Con- vention last June. If, being in the House for years, they have not so far emrged as presidential possibilities, they would seem unlikely to do so during the coming four years. Besides, the Republicans in the House will be urider an especial han- dicap. They can't talk. They can't make themselves known. There are 50 few of them that there are not even enough to demand a debate on any question. The Democrats can make and enforce any gag rule they choose. This and other circumstances make it difficult for the Republicans in the coming House to engage in de- bate or otherwise impress themselves on the country. Next to the House and Senate at ‘Washington, the ranks of Governors are the most fruitful {raining place for presidential possfollities. It was from this quarter that Republicans got their candidate this year—Gov. Landon of Kansas, who, before he was selected, had had no experience in any national office. At the present time, in the entire 48 States, there are eight Republican Governors. Some of them have terms lasting until 1938 or 1939. Others come to the end of their terms next January. After next January there will be even fewer. In one State, Maine, a Republican defeated a Dem- ocrat, now in office, and apparently the same thing happened in South Dakota. But in some States, including Kansas, Michigan and Delaware, Re- publican Governors were displaced by Democrats. The total number of Republican Governors beginning next January 1 will be six, and among them is none who has so far occurred to anybody as a presidential possi- bility. The Republicans appear to have completely skimmed the cream of the Governors when they took Mr. Lan- don. (Copyrish. 1036,)