THE INVASION OF CALIFORNIA

En route to St. Louis (Oct. 15) and Syracuse, N.Y. (Oct. 21 ), Wendell Willkie visited Los Angeles to see about One World. What happened is recounted herewith by TIME'S Los Angeles Correspondent, Sidney L. James. When much the same happened in San Francisco, it seemed to Californians that Willkie is the candidate other G.O.P. candidates must beat.

When Wendell Willkie slipped quietly into Los Angeles last week, he was merely chairman of the board of 20th Century-Fox. When he left five days later he looked like the most important Presidential possibility in the Republican Party to Southern California party members. If he has not completed the capture of California by the time he leaves San Francisco for New York on Saturday, this is my last flyer in political prognostication.

His capture of the state was like a well-executed Commando raid. Only a few trusted "fifth columnists"--lawyers Mclntyre and David Faries, a brother team who had worked for his election in 1940, and several others--knew that his visit concerned anything more vital than studio business. He did go to the beach home of Darryl Zanuck, Fox production head, for five days of discussion devoted mainly to the script of One World. But Lem Jones, his political secretary, who had accompanied him across the country, took up a position some 15 miles east in the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

Bacon & Eggs & Turkey. Early one morning Commando Willkie left his beach position alone in a chauffeured Lincoln. Driving through an obscuring fog, he arrived shortly after 8 at the grey-walled University Club in downtown Los Angeles. There David Faries had gathered a hundred business & professional men to join him in bacon & eggs and to hear him talk turkey off-the-record. For 45 minutes, to the obvious satisfaction of virtually everyone present, he talked, answering in gutty, he-man language (hells & damns were not infrequent) the questions inspired by the doubts that California Republicans had expressed about Willkie since 1940.

When he left his applauding auditors of the University Club and moved over to his fixed position on the tenth floor of the nearby Biltmore, the invasion was on. At 10:30 the press was called in. For an hour, as photographers' flash bulbs flared, he answered questions, chain-smoking, gesturing and wriggling in familiar campaign fashion. The most important news for California: 1) that he was going to have breakfast with Governor Warren at the executive mansion in Sacramento; 2) that he was studying the California Presidential primary law.

Squab & Turkey. At noon he was back at the University Club, this time in the lounge on the second floor, to be greeted by members of Beta Theta Pi, his college fraternity, and members of the Los Angeles Big Ten Club. They called for a speech. He climbed onto a settee and left no doubt that he was ad dressing them as a candidate for the Presidency. Then he spent 20 minutes shaking hands.

At 12:30 he was two blocks away, seated at a long luncheon table in the California Club. The Republican Finance Committee was meeting to eat squab and talk finances--an affair planned long before Willkie's trip. He got a belated invitation. Naturally he dominated it. Again he gave an off-the-record, face-to-face turkey talk; again he left with real applause ringing in his ears.

Local Penetrations. Back at his Biltmore suite for a scheduled rest, he spent most of his time telephoning or greeting callers who came in unannounced. At 4, he was at the Los Angeles Athletic Club amidst a milling crowd of some 200 in the low-ceilinged assembly room. They were leaders in local affairs from such poles apart as reactionary old ex-Governor Merriam and liberal New Dealing John Anson Ford of the County Board of Supervisors. (One well-meaning lawyer whispered to Willkie not to shake hands with Ford: "He's a radical." Willkie and Ford shook nevertheless.)

Back at his Biltmore suite at 6, he talked off-the-record to ten local A.F. of L. labor leaders. They would not pose for pictures with Willkie, but they appeared no less satisfied with his talk and answers than the other groups.

Assault on Strong Points. Next morning, Willkie was again seated at an important breakfast. This time at the Coconut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel, he was principal speaker at the opening of Los Angeles' War Chest drive. Again Willkie was an added starter, as the breakfast had been long planned. It was not a political speech, but it gave him an opportunity to address 1,000 influential Angelenos.

At 11 a.m. Willkie was back downtown in his suite being cross-examined behind closed doors by the National Contact Committee for the California Republican Assembly. This committee's duty is to examine possible candidates. Willkie's forthrightness apparently impressed the committee whose statement after the interview went surprisingly far: "Mr. Willkie is frank, courageous and deeply concerned about the future of our country. He is a real American and his bid for the nomination will be serious and strong."

At 12:15 he was in a private dining room downstairs, the guest of the Republican State Central Committee at another off-the-record luncheon. Present were 85 Republicans who were officeholders, officials of the party organization, or both. For more than an hour he gave them some more straight talk. They cheered him wildly as he left.

At 3 p.m. he was in his suite again. This time he sat on a footstool at the feet of a circle of a score of women members of the Republican women's platform committee while several took notes. He answered their questions with the same gestures of head & hands, and the same straight language he had used on male audiences.

At 4 p.m. the women's platform committee had been replaced by 15 Los Angeles Negro leaders. They asked him questions on everything from the poll tax to better service for Negroes on Los Angeles streetcars. One expressed satisfaction later, quoting Willkie as saying: "I don't want to be tolerated; I want my rights." Another expressed pleasure over Willkie's advice to Negroes: "Don't get tied up to anybody; make them bid for you. Don't let them deal with the Southern Democrats and feed you spinach in Harlem at the same time."

The Beachhead Consolidated. At 5 p.m. he was three blocks away in the Los Angeles Republican headquarters in the Spring Arcade Building. It took him ten minutes to get through the milling throng that jammed the corridor before the entrance. Once inside, he bounded onto a desk and spoke: "When I was here the last time in 1941, I had come to speak about something close to my heart. I wanted to convince you that we must give aid to England in our common fight against Hitler. At that time many of my own party members carried placards outside of the stadium accusing Wendell Willkie of deserting his party and even his country. Privately you were saying things, using a word that began with 'B' and a phrase that is indicated by 'S.O.B.' I want to remind you, therefore, that only a couple of weeks ago my party assembled at Mackinac Conference and adopted doctrines that I had been advocating, and further, that only last week Congress passed the Fulbright Resolution that was concerned with other measures I had been criticized for speaking out about."

This went over big with the crowd and Willkie again walked from a meeting amidst resounding applause. Here, as elsewhere, he seemed to have convinced his auditors that he was a good Republican Party man and a logical foe for Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Back at the hotel he held private tete-a-tetes for the rest of the evening before leaving for Sacramento. Not only did Republicans call on him, but Democrats as well. The rising tide of interest in him was obvious. Telephone calls flooded in, keeping his secretary and several volunteers busy. One man called to volunteer to dress himself as Paul Revere and begin riding throughout the Western states until the convention next year.

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