Evening Star Newspaper, April 26, 1940, Page 11

Willkie Formidable Dark Horse , Many Attributes Draw Attention Of G. O. P. Chiefs By DAVID LAWRENCE. An amazing amount of talk about & dark horse for the Republican nomination is being heard in Wash- ington nowadays—talk about Wen- dell Willkie, for instance, and this notwith- standing the fact that no political organiza- tion exists in his behalf. But the mem- bers of the Sen- ate and House are themselves influential in the make-up of delegations to the national conventions. The fact that the David Lawrence. merits of Willkie as a possible candi- date are being discussed, sometimes favorably and sometimes adversely, indicates at this time a certain restlessness within the Republican party which it is too early to meas- 1 ure, but which may mean eventually the nomination of some dark horse for the Presidency. The comment about Willkie usual- Iy starts out with a concession that he is an able campaigner, that he would make a colorful contest and that he really has the capacity to administer the responsibilities of the Presidency. Then the discussion turns on whether a utility execu- tive could be nominated or, if nomi- nated, couid be elected. Both Know Utilities. It is an interesting coincidence, but if, as now seems probable, At- torney General Jackson should be Mr. Roosevelt’s choice for the Demo- cratic nomination in the event that & third nomination for himself is declined, the Presidential campaign might have two standard bearers who have served many years in the employ of the public utilities. Mr. Jackson before coming to Washington was an attorney for cne of the big utility corporations in western New York—a company in which the Morgans, for example, have a much larger percentage of the ownership than they have in the company of which Willkie is president. This might mean that, if the debate turned on the Public Utility Holding Company Act, the country would have a first-class di cussion on the merits of that all im= portant piece of legislation whose passage, it is contended by many, has had more to do with prevent- ing re-employment and delaying re- covery than any other single meas- ure passed by the New Deal. Mr. Willkie's skill as a debater plus his background on this ques- tion might well make the issue de- terrents to unemployment, rather than the type of smear campaign which has so often been associated with utility baiting. The country has heard very little thus far of the true story of how a $12,000,000,000 industry has been injured by gov- ernment even after the abuses which existed in the financing of utilities in the “mad twenties” were elimi- nated by legislation under the Se- curities and Exchange Act of 1934. | A Legal Fighter. Wendell Willkie has never been | & part of the financing orgy asso- ciated with the utilities in the '20s and is himself not a utility mag- nate, for he never has been a rich man or an owner of any substan- tial holdings himself. His life has been largely that of a lawyer bat- tling his way to eminence in the courts. One of the reasons why he has attracted so much attention is that he has not been willing to lie down and accept for his company or his industry what he believes are confiscatory policies and unwar- ranted attacks. Until a few months ago, Willkie's availability as a candidate was not taken seriously. Today he is be- ing looked over carefully by the political leaders of the country. He is a liberal who is as ready to fight for the civil liberties of an unjustly accused radical as he is to seek protection for the constitutionak rights of a conservative. On for- eign policy questions, Willkie is as anxious to keep America out of war 85 any man in America. He has geen war at first hand. In 1917 he enlisted a few days after America declared war, and he was in France more than a year as a first lieuten- ant of field artillery, being recom- mended for a captaincy just as the armistice came. Lawyer, soldier, business executive, public debater, student of history and government, he is one of the few men who have risen to national prominence in the political arena without political backing. If for any reason the campaign of The Capital Parade Dewey High Command Dissatisfied as Dislike Of Gang Buster Grows in Rival Groups By JOSEPH ALSOP and ROBERT KINTNER. The great current question of Republican politics is whether the glowing appearance of Thomas E. Dewey’s candidacy is the true blush of health, or merely the hectic flush that announces inner disease. If disease there be, the source of infection is the hearty dislike for Dewey entertained in most of the rival factions of the Republican party. The young gang-buster has not endeared himself, for example, to Senator Vandenberg of Michigan, whom he licked in Wisconsin and Nebraska but vgw will stgll hnve‘conslderable convention strength. Nor can he be described as the favorite . of Senator Taft of Ohlo, who ~ Jotés&&f,'&s;“ probably would prefer most of the i NS other Republican candidates to NN Dewey. Nor is he loved and e cherished among the powerful in- dependent groups, such as the Pennsylvania Junta of Oilman Joe Pew, whose voices may in the end decide the Republican choice. Taking the over-all picture there is an obvious possibility of the formation of just such a stop-Dewey movement as his managers clamorously warn against. Besides his public gains, he has made certain private ones. For example, it is rumored that Steelman Ernest T. Weir has offered his adherence to the Dewey cause. But there are signs, such as a Deweyite proffer of a cabinet place to a rcently much-talked-of rival, that the Dewey high command remains dissatisfied with the speed of their bandwagon. Big Talk From Dewey Camp Certainly the Dewey managers are guilty of talking bigger than they yet are. They lay claims to most of New England, whereas the fact is that Maine and New Hampshire seem to be closed to them, Connecticut very doubtful, and Massachusetts far less enthusiastic than the Deweyite talk would spggest. In Massachusetts, for instance, the Dewey claims | appear to be largely based on the support of former Gov. Alvan T. Fuller and former Secretary of the Navy Charles Prancis Adams. | Yet the truth is that greatly as Adams and Fuller are respected in Massachusetts, neither of them will control delegates or even themselves | be members of the delegation. And at the other end of the country, Dewey himself has declared that he would have 22 of the 44 California delegates. Yet it is known to be the opinion of former President Herbert Hoover, | who should certainly know his own State, that Deéwey will have only nine | votes from California | Where his people claim a near majority of the convention on the | first ballot, he had no more than 320 delegates in two recent expert | calculations made independently, but both made with the intention of | giving him every reasonable break. Believing, therefore, that his friends | are talking too big, Dewey's enemies say that he has now got as far as | he can, predicting that the politicians’ dislike of him will overbalance thei possible feeling that he is the man who can win, The Dewey | enemies say that he will be a “fader” in the convention . ’ Turmoil, Turmoil | At the same time, while disbelieving the big talk now, politicans un- | friendly to Dewey obviously fear that it later may be substantiated. Thus |1t 's perfectly impossible to know who is right and who is wrong until | authentic reports appear that one or more of the independent Republican | 8Toups have either joined Dewsy or joined & stop-Dewey combination, | Certainly Dewey has not greatly improved his position by his assault {on his earliest political patron, New York County Chairman Kenneth F. Simpson, whom he is attempting to drive from the national committee- manship. The attempt is thought to be illegal by persons friendly to Simpson, since the ccnvention delegates are supposed to pick the new naticnal committeeman. and since the persons designated as delegates will not actually assume that status until they have been formally ac- cepted by the Republican convention. o | If the Dewey forces decide that this is s0 and leave matters as they | are, Simpson and his 19 New Yorkers are likely to cast a first ballot | vote for Dewey. If the assault on | ‘Oflsm* Simpson continues, however, he | OUR YARD/ and his men will go somewhere else. " At present he is known to be talking enthusiastically of a Re- publican ticket headed by Justice Owen J. Roberts, who has shown not the slightest sign of willingness to be drafted, but who is also being pushed by some leaders of the Penn- sylvania Junta. Meanwhile the Deweyites are also said to be carry- ‘\in;z their enmity to Simpson to such lengths that they are ready to 3oppose the senatorial candidacy of Simpson’s friend, Representative Bruce Barton, who is one of the best vote-getters in his State. Thus all | this turmoil, in New York and elsewhere. . (Released by the North American Newspaper Alliance, Inc.) Thomas E. Dewey is unsuccessful ‘“,Group Names Chairman lining up a majority of the dele-| = /o) o meuIIE, Va., A S | , Va., Aprill gates, it would be most natural for 26 (#)—Mrs. C. Nelson Beck of many of the Dewey delegates, who are of the younger school of repub- | Albemarle County has been named | licanism, to drift toward Willkie. For he is 48 years old and can be classed with the progressive rather than the conservative groups in this country.| oojieq by the women's division of t is a strange thing that political - | le:de:satkt;msge]ves x;‘re tall}(?ng so | the Democratic National Committee. | much about Willkie's availability. It| may be significant of a desire to put into the field some one whose capacity is acknowledged and whose intellectual honesty would appeal to the independent voters. Willkie has been much in demand by political organizations for public speaking but has delivered only a few addresses. He made the prin- cipal speech this week before the American Newspaper Publishers As- sociation in New York. Without much delegate support at present, Willkie as a dark horse may have to be reckoned with as convention time draws near. (Reproduction Rights Reserved.) to the National Institute of Govern- ment, to be held in Washington May 2-4. China supplies 75 per cent of the world's commercial bristles. A e on < T W e o for LATEST NEWS | The Night Final Star, containing the latest news of the day during these dramatic times, is de- livered every evening throughout the city and suburbs between 6 P.M. and 7 P.M. Telephone National 5000 for -immediate delivery. = < R — Quality Values SPRING SUITS The newest and smartest suits of the season .. . skill- fully tallored and finished. Finest all-wool fabrics in tweeds, gabardines, wor- steds, herringbones, and others. Men who want quality values will shop filseman's first. Sizes for CHARGE IT! PAY NOTHING 4 Months to Pay Starting in May = WL 0, e, V' KASHURS L 9 I e S, T e e LW, DOWN B This meeting has been | Summer wear. Convenient 90-Day Divided Payment Plon. T TR ", T STAR, “WASHINGTON, ' D. C., FRIDAY, Txl opinions of the writers on this page are thetr own, not necessarily The Star's. Such opinions are presented in The Star's effort to give all- sides readers, although such opinions th, emselves and directly opposed to of of interest to its mazy be_contradictory among ‘he Btar’s. Washington Observations In Case You've Forgotten McReynolds, Currie And Rowe, They Are Passionately Anonymous By FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. Incredible as it sounds, there do appear to be in high position in Washington at least three men with “a passion for anonymity.” They are the half portion of the six administra- tive assistants the President was authorized to appoint under the first Gov- ernment reor- ganization plan, The trio of shrinking violets consists of Wil- liam H. McRey- nolds, Lauch- lin Currie and James H. Rowe. Although al- Frederle William Wile. ready on the job roundly eight months, on all sorts of confidential chores for F. D. R. at both ends of Pennsylvania avenue, their identi- ties are probably unknown outside of the intimate circle of their own associates and of the official baili- wicks in"which they gumshoe on the Big Chief’s behalf. The precise na- ture of their activities remains a hermetically sealed White House se- cret. The only public clue to them is that McReynolds is a specialist in civil service matters; that Currie formerly was attached to the Fed- eral Reserve Board and that Rowe was the right-hand man of “my son Jimmie” when the latter was & member of the White House secre- tariat. Currie, scholar as well as economist, is credited with being, in addition to his pussyfoot duties around town, an occasional co- author and blue penciler of presi- dential speeches and statements. * ok ok X The Willkie Boom. Efforts to make Wendell L. Will- kie, president of Commonwealth & Southern Corp., No. 1 dark horse for the Republican presidential nomi- nation have now assumed practical form. An organization on his be- half has opened headquarters in New York City, in charge of Oren Root, jr, a grandnephew of Elihu Root. Its activities momentarily are confined to obtaining “declarations” for Willkie. Up to this week appli- cations for 35000 declarations had come in. One of Willkie's ardent supporters is Col. Henry Breckin- ridge, Lindbergh's personal attor- ney and Assistant Secretary of War under Woodrow Wilson. Breckinridge, like Willkie himself, is now described as “a former Dem- ocrat.” The bearer of Kentucky's most famous Democratic name de- clares that if the Republicans “have the courage and wisdom to nomi- nate Willkie, he will surely defeat the New Deal.” There are reported strong indications that certain in- fluential Republican leaders may swing to Willkie as the best “stop Dewey” bet. Willkie was the dinner guest of anti-Dewey New York Ree publican National Committeeman Kenneth F. Simpson on April 20. S | | Some 70 G. O. P. moguls, compris- chairman of the Virginia delegation | ing the so-called inner circle, were present, including Senator Taft and Representative Martin, themselves outstanding Republican candidates. Col. Breckinridge is for Willkie, he says, “because, among other reasons, Willkie is not an isolationist, where- as Vandenberg, Taft and Dewey, lured by a misinterpretation of —,:Take a Census of Your *. Mid-Season Clothing . . . The Mode specalizes in dressing well- groomed Washington men and young men in lightweight fabrics for Spring-through- We have developed these three attractive, prominent fabrics in the famed Richard Prince Lounge Model which should be included in every smart wardrobe . . true distinction unobtainable elsewhere at these prices. Richard Prinee | V GABARDINES at $34% EISEMAN’S |V FLANNELS F at SEVENTH . at $34:50 at $32.50 Coat and Trousers America’s love of peace, have pre- sumed to identify that sentiment with a blind, callous and greedy iso- lationism, As a lighthouse in the dark, Wendell Willkie stands in contrast.” L Admiral Taussig’s Plain Speaking. Admiral “Joe” Taussig, whose blunt opinion before the Senate Naval Committee that the United States cannot ultimately help “be- ing drawn into war, on account of the Far Eastern situation,” has been repudiated by the Navy Depart-q ment, was the first officer of our armed establishment to carry the stars and stripes into the World War battle zone. As commander of the 8th Division, Destroyer Force, Atlantio Fleet, Taussig on April 6, 1917, the day Congress declared war, received orders aboard his flagship, U. 8. 8. Wadsworth, to “mobtlize for 'war, proceed to European waters for protection of commerce near the coast of Great Britain and Ireland and assist naval operations of the entente powers in every way pos- sible.” Mutual past service in the Far East made Comdr. Taussig's assign- ment particularly agreeable to Ad- miral Jellicoe, British commander in chief. While recovering from injuries during the American naval expedition to rescue the besieged Peiking legations during the Boxer rebellion of 1900 Taussig found him- self in a hospital cot alongside a young English captain named John Jellicoe, Before the skipper of the first Yankee naval forces to reach the 1917 war zone had been in British waters 24 hours, Taussig re- ceived a cordial message from the man who was now commander of the Grand Fleet, recalling their “association in China” and express- | ing “delight” over the American se- | lection to head “the first force to | cross the Atlantic to fight for free- dom, humanity and civilization. Said Admiral Jellicoe: “There is no navy in the world that could pos- sibly give us more valuable assist- ance, and no personnel in any navy that will ight better than yours.” * x % x Corcoran and Cohen Junior. Known in Federal circles as the “junior Corcoran and Cohen team,” two “Bills"—William J. Dempsey and William C. Koplovitz—have just resigned as general counsel and as- sistant general counsel, respectively, of the Federal Communications Commission. Like Corcoran and Cohen, they worked in double harness throughout the New Deal. Both servied as counsel to P. W. A. and F. P. C. before heading the F. C. C. legal department. Main- taining their record for winning important power cases, the Demp- sey-Koplovitz box score for F. C. C. reveals seven Supreme Court cases won, none lost and two pending. In the Court of Appeals “Corcoran and Cohen Junior” won 29 cases, lost none, and have nine pending. Dempsey, 34, was born in Brooklyn and law-degreed by Geofgetown. Koplovitz, 30, is a St. Louisan, and was graduated from Washington University and Harvard Law School. Dempsey is happily wed, and Koplovitz, happily single. Dempsey is the son of Representative Demp- sey, Democrat, of New Mexico, who ] | T I‘\\ % e e o TR TS T 47 ) Sports Slacks Gabardine, Flannel and Covert $6.95 and more SHOES FOR MEN Time for lightweight clothes—and time for your smart new Whitehall White—with Tans, Browns or Blacks. Review our wide selection in every smart new style—with new Boot- maker's finish. 56 58 4 Zie ot mvonnm&d and $10 de F STREET.as ELEVENTH APRIL 26, 1940. This Changing World Victory or Defeat of Allies in Norway Called Key to Future Course of War By CONSTANTINE BROWN. All governments are following with & tense anxiety the developments in Norway. The next course of the war depends largely on what is hap- pening there: If the Germans are able to throw the allies into the sea, the balance of victory will weigh in their favor and the French and the British will have to make unbelievable efforts to re-establish the situation in other quarters of the world. If, on the other hand, the allies succeed in gaining a strong foothold in Norway and are able to compel the Germans either to withdraw or, in desperation, to attack Sweden, the position of the Reich will become close to disaster. s e ee ‘The struggle between comparatively small allied and German forces is being' followed keenly by the Italians and the Japanese, Premier Mussolini s all ready for action. His fleet is still concen- trated in the Eastern Mediterranean and the mobilization and concentra- tion of the Italian forces takes a more definite shape every day. According to reliable reports, the same thing is occurring in the Far East, where a final victory of the Germans in Scandinavia would be bound to have a strong repercussion and give the upper hand to the military clique in Tokio to proceed at once with its plans for an expansion of Japan in the Southern Pacific. % s The neutrals who live in terror of tomorrow and feel menaced by Germany’s concern over their safety are also worried. The governments and the majority of the people of the neutrals in Northern and Western Europe are determined to keep foreign armies away from their territory. But in the face of an allied setback in Norway they feel that the sections of the population which are advocating “extreme prudenci might gain ground and prevail on the people that opposing Germany with arms is both futile and saicidal. | While a setback inNorway would strengthen the determination of the British and the French nations to fight to the bitter end, it might have an opposite reaction on the smaller nations. These are the things which are at stake today on the battlefields of Norway. 5 s e It is for these reasons that military and diplomatic experts consider | the struggle in Scandinavia more important from the political than from the military point of view. It is true that the mere endeavor of the allies to fight what they realized from the beginning must be a difficult war in & small and rugged country is interpreted by the neutral governments as a definite sign that France and Great Britain will fight Germany from whatever point the challenge may come. But in the minds of the masses a reversal in Norway, intelligently exploited by the Reich and its few sympathizers, such help may appear without much value. TR More French troops are on the way to the Norwegian coast. The original landing forces were not particularly good. The best trained British troops are in France. Some 50,000 first-class British troops are in England and serve as a nucleus and training force for the new British Army, which is now being conscripted. The British are slow as usual. Their insularity as far as war is concerned does not seem to have changed since the days of Lord Wellington. They consider war still a gentleman’s sport, while the Germans, like the French, consider 1t as a serious, dificult and somewhat dirty business. ‘This is the explanation given in many military quarters why the first British landing detachments were so utterly unprepared for modeml warfare. In these quarters it is believed that the situation in Northern Norway might easily be re-established if the present landing parties hold good for a few days to enable crack French and British troops to arrive and take over from the untrained forces which have been strafed by Germany's veterans of the Polish war. may battle Senator Chavez in the nomination primary. * kK X Norse War Affects Our Trade. | Blockade of Scandinavia cuts off | 58 per cent of American export trade. Since last September our commerce with Denmark, N®rway and Sweden ¥ncreased 81 per cent, amounting in 1939 to $166,000,000, chiefly tobacco, automobiles, oil, copper, cotton, iron and steel, machinery " and foodstuffs. Im- ports from Scandinavia were | principally wood pulp and news- print, which we'll now probably get from Canada. lle de France Ready To Slip Out of New York BY the Associated Press. NEW YORK, April 26.—The three huge funnels of the French liner last night while 200 painters were hastily finishing camouflaging the 43450-ton vessel for war-time serv- | ice. | Scheduled, according to water front reports, to join the British liners Queen Mary and Maure- tania in troopship service between Australia and the Near East, the “eel” will have her full coat of war- time gray by noon today. Uncommunicative French sailors boarded the ship yesterday to aug- ment the skeleton crew assigned her when she was lald up here last September 8. HAHN=— 14th & G Tth & K *3212 14th *4483 Conn. Ave. Popen evenings Admitted to Practice James Morris Bishop, an examiner in the Capital Stock Tax Division of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, was admitted yesterday to practice before the Supreme Court. Saddle Oxfords Already a proven favorite for smart sportswear is TRI- WEAR'S newest saddle oxford in genuine white buck- skin with brown calf saddle and those thick Solaire red rubber soles that are so light they actually float in water. And then there is the ever-popular campus style in unlined white calf, with brown or black calf saddle and red rubber soles. Sizes 6 to 12, 93 a TRIPLE Hahn n THRIFT Charge Account any salesman for details Ile de France belched forth smoke | New Dealism Comes to A Pause Presiderfi and Congress Coast To Election By CHARLES G. ROSS. The important news in Washing- ton during the last month—indeed, since the opening of the present ses- slon of Congress in January—has begn the com- 4 plete absence of - anydomestic news calculated to stir up the voters, Legislatively, the Capital is in a state of sus- pended anima- tion, Mr. Roose- velt planned it that way. He had the election in view. The poli- tician in him put down the re- Charles G. Row. former. He was also, I think, a little tired. The Democratic leaders of Con- gress have been happy to fall in with his mood. Their whole aim has been to prevent strife in the party, and they have pursued this alm with a remarkable degree of success. The truce patched up be- tween the warring elements during the special session has lasted. Even the third-term threat has failed to break the outward harmony. Coast on Reforms., All this is by way of saying that for the rest of the Roosevelt admin- istration, the New Deal, so far as any affirmative action is concerned, is washed up. No new reform meas= ure is being pressed by the adminis- tration, and none will be. Both Con= gress and the President are coasting toward the election. To those of the New Deal who believe that the top should be kept spinning, this is a hateful condition; to the practical poiiticians of the party, it is manna from heaven. Mr. Roosevelt is a reformer, but | he is also, and intensely, a practical politician. Some times one phass of him is in the ascendant, some times the other. The course he is follow- ing at the moment is dictated by his conception of the demands of poli= tics. It is a course fully consistent either with a third-term candidacy or with a desire to hand on the presidency to some other Democr: Whatever the President’s motive— and the writer continues to believe it is the latter—the net result of his strategy, plus his pre-occupation | with foreign relations, is a legislative |state of affairs from which the emergence of any new issue is wholly | unlikely. Unless the war or a third= | term candidacy produces fresh mae terial, the campaign will be waged around issues which already have been made. Three Issues in Congress. | The three main issues currently | engaging the attention of the Con= gress have to do with the Wagner Labor Relations Act, the Wages and Hours Act and the Logan-Walter bill. It is significant that in each case, the administration people are fighting not to extend their gains but to hold what they have. The fight centering around the Wagner Act is to keep out the drastic Smith amendments. In the case of the wage-hour law it is to prevent the riddling of the act with the Barden amendments. The Logan-Walter bill, which the House has passed, repre- sents an effort to put a curb on the administrative agencies of the Gov- ernment; it was designed to strike especially at those created under the New Deal. The Logan-Walter bill, for sound reasons, will be killed either in the Senate or by a presidential veto, and it appears likely that both the Bar- den amendments and the Smith amendments will either be severely toned down or go by the board. But the point is that the New Deal, so far from pressing on to new goals, is now definitely on the defensive. A lot of water has gone over the dam since the first “hundred days.” Hold on Congress Broken. ‘Two thoughts are now suggested by the situation in which the New Deal now finds itself. One is that the silence of the President on the third term has not had all the effects predicted for it. It has tremendously influenced the cam- paign for the presidency and it may have had weight in foreign affairs, but it has certainly not heightened the President’s influence in Con- gress. To what a low ebb this has fallen was demonstrated by the House vote of 279 to 97 for the Logan-Walter bill, to which he is known to be strongly opposed. Similarly, if his power over Congress had not declined greatly, the danger to the Wagner and Wages and Hours laws never would have reach- ed its present stage. So far as legislation goes, the President would be just as well off, and perhaps better, if he had taken himself out of the presidential race months ago. ‘The other observation arising from the present situation in Con- gress—a situation that reflects the conservative gains in 1938 and the prospect of a close election .this year—is that the New Deal as we have known it for the iast seven years has come to a pause. We are about to enter a phase in which po- litical controversy will be concerned not with further experimentation, but ‘with the degree to which the achievements of the New Deal shall be preserved. No candidate, either Democratic or Republican, is Ppropos- ing anything new. Failing a com- plete change in the mood of the country, the task of the next Presi- dent, on the policy-making as dis- tinguished from the administrative side, will lie very largely in the field of our foreign relations. Nichols to Lead Forum On Youth and Law Inspector L. B. Nichols of the Fed- eral Bureau of Investigation will lead an open forum on “Youth and Law Enforcement” Sunday, beginning at 3 p.':l; in the Jewish Community Inspector Nichols has been detailed |as administrative assistant to Di- rector J. Edgar Hoover for the last five years. Previously, he did fleld duty as a special agent. Also participating in the discussion will be representatives of the Capi- tal's three A. Z. A. organization chapters, the girls’ auxiliary of B'nal mmd Troop 73 of the Boy 4