IT’S WILLKIE. Democrats have every reason to be nervous about the Republican Convention’s sixth-ballot nomination of Wendell Willkie to be the party’s presidential candidate this fall. Within moments of his dramatic victory over Messrs. Dewey and Taft, just before 2 a.m. Friday morning, it was clear he’d have glowing endorsements from all of his former opponents. Friday’s late editions of the New York Herald Tribune extensively quote the messages of support. With a united G.O.P. behind him, Mr. Willkie is in a sensational position to reach out to Democrats and Independents, having been regarded himself as a Democrat until just a couple of years ago.
And his man-of-the-people credentials are solid. Henry Paynter of the Associated Press writes a great biography of the man in Friday’s Washington Post, pointing out among other things the fact that this big-business Republican lawyer was never afraid to soil his hands -- “Wendell sold papers, collected bills, worked in a steel mill and on a Puerto Rico sugar plantation, was a migratory farm worker in California, an Iowa farmhand (he almost married the farmer’s daughter); ran a cement block machine in Wyoming, worked in the wheat fields of Oklahoma and Kansas and drove a baker’s wagon. Few of his present friends know he was an accomplished shortorder cook, having worked his way up from dishwasher.”
WILLKIE AND THE WAR. Most importantly, Mr. Willkie’s argument is with the New Deal, not with the President’s support of the Allies. He is one of the Republicans who generally agrees with the Administration’s position on supporting Great Britain with great amounts of war material, while sparing no expense to prepare America to defend the Western Hemisphere against the future threat of Axis attack. Perhaps his foreign-policy views are the reason that the Chicago Tribune, remarkably, has yet to mention him editorially since his nomination. Or maybe the isolationists are nervous because, according to Saturday’s New York Times, President Roosevelt said at his Friday news conference he would be “very glad” to meet Mr. Willkie for a discussion on international relations, perhaps even with an eye to putting forth a “common front” on foreign policy. Mr. Willkie, who plans to make his formal acceptance speech soon in his home town of Elwood, Indiana, said he would be “glad” to talk to the President, and deftly threw in a quip -- “I think one should be courteous to his predecessor.”
THE CRITICS RAVE. Among the newspaper editors, Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike come close to gushing about the Willkie nomination in their Friday editions --
Los Angeles Times (Republican) -- “If ever a man was nominated in response to popular demand, against powerful rival coalitions and against all the ‘dope’ of the political wiseacres, it is Wendell Willkie.”
New York World Telegram (Independent) -- “It was the wisest decision [the convention] could have made....President Roosevelt will meet an opponent worthy of his steel.”
Kansas City Star (Independent) -- “If ever the people of America prayed, ‘God, send us a man,’ it has been in the last six weeks, and if ever such a prayer was answered it has come in the nomination of Wendell Willkie.”
Washington Post (Independent) -- “Washington was a simple man and so was Jefferson. Another of the same, straightforward habit of thought was Abraham Lincoln, a figure whose heroic simplicity of character has been caught and depicted in imperishable marble in the great statue which every visitor to this city knows....there is the quality of simplicity in Wendell Willkie.”
Hartford Courant (Republican) -- Wendell Willkie...will do more than merely revitalize the Republican party. He will tremendously appeal to the people as one fully capable of supplying the kind of leadership that the country so sorely needs at this juncture.”
Baltimore Sun (Democrat) -- “Not only is Mr. Wendell L. Willkie the ablest man who was available in the Republican ranks, he had directed his abilities to the most enlightened and patriotic causes....His victory...is a miracle of American politics.”
New Orleans Times-Picayune (Democrat) -- “Mr Willkie’s...writings and utterances, by their candor, common sense, and good spirit, have favorably impressed millions of Americans. The same fine qualities and abilities that won him the nomination should carry him far in the campaign.”
Galveston News (Democrat) -- “Disillusioned Democrats and liberal Republicans will flock to his standard. Conservative Republicans will have no other choice.”
RUSSIAN AGGRESSION IN RUMANIA. Last week Soviet Russia sent occupying troops into the Baltic states, and this week she’s seizing a chunk of eastern Rumania. A Friday Associated Press story says that Rumania’s King Carol has given in to Russian demands for Bessarabia and northern Bucovina. Reportedly, the Soviets were waiting for the diplomats to iron out the details before their troops marched. But a United Press dispatch on Saturday says that the Russians have not only sent 100 divisions, or about a million troops, into the ceded areas, they’ve also crossed the border into “old” Rumania. There, they’ve occupied the border cities of Cernauti and Dorohol and seem to be still on the move.
According to the A.P., this has prompted Carol to order general mobilization and file “an urgent appeal with the German minister that Berlin put hard pressure on Moscow to halt the Red advance and force the Russians to retire to the line named in their original and accepted demand.” Sadly, although Rumania had a year ago accepted a British guarantee of security and seemed to wish to stand with the Allies, she’s now trying desperately to curry favor with Hitler, to the point that Carol added this week two Rumanian Nazis to his cabinet.
It doesn’t seem to be working, though. Hungary and Bulgaria have responded to the Russian move by making territorial demands of their own against what’s left of Rumania. Most of Rumania’s 2,000,000 men under arms are facing the Hungarian frontier. But as Poland found out over the centuries, it’s impossible to defend one’s homeland when it’s surrounded by enemies bent on partition. Rumania will be one more European country to soon disappear from the map – unless Hitler, bent on the fullest exploitation of Rumania’s resources for his own ends, decides to step in and spare it.
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