Mission to Missouri

The men from Missouri had wanted to be shown. Wendell Willkie waded into Missouri last week and gave them a sample of showmanship, sagacity and spunk. When he left he had: 1) laid down a well-hewn platform for 1944, which he could develop later, plank by plank, in further speeches; 2) proved to all other G.O.P. candidates that he is still the man they have to beat.

Wendell Willkie's Missouri mission was a tough one. First he had to show that he was no Tweedledum to Franklin Roosevelt's Tweedledee. He had to answer the criticisms of such conventional conservative Republicans as Missouri's wealthy Edgar Monsanto Queeny. At the same time he had to show the rest of the U.S. that as a Presidential candidate he really had something vital to offer beyond his known attitude of good will to men. In one sober public speech and one off-the-record session he established both points.

On the Record. It was the coldest night of the fall season. A mean wind chilled an audience that failed by 200 to fill the opera house (capacity: 3,500) of St. Louis' Municipal Auditorium. The loudspeakers set up to blare the speech to an expected overflow crowd in the square outside were not needed. Willkie's delivery, awkward in 1940, turned out to be only slightly improved. And he had to race through his speech to squeeze it into a 30-minute national hookup, holding up his hand to silence applause. He still had nine paragraphs to go when NBC cut him off to make way for a program called "People Are Funny."

Despite all these handicaps, Wendell Willkie's St. Louis speech was a political success, just for what it said. He began by attacking Term IV.

Cynical Leadership. "Irrespective of the abilities or motives of the individuals involved, such long continuance of power is hazardous to the perpetuation of free Government. . . . Power held so long breeds within itself abuses which will ultimately destroy a democratic society. Those who hold power too long begin to distrust the very source of their power; the people seem to them hopelessly ignorant. As a result, entrenched leadership becomes cynical and remote and it fails to take the people into its confidence."

Foreign Policy. "A few days ago ... the State Department published a white paper of a black record. It showed that our representatives abroad saw and told our Government of the growing menace of Japan and Germany... . But this information was not imparted to our people. . . . Meanwhile, our Congress conducted munitions investigations while our President signed futile neutrality acts.

"And yet--and this is the tragic irony--the administration's excuse today for our lack of preparedness for war is that the people and their Congressional representatives would not have authorized the building-up of an adequate air force, army and navy. Perhaps if the people had been given the facts they would have, as usual, been wiser than their leaders.

"Perhaps if the people had been given the facts . . . many of the billions wasted by the Administration between 1932 and 1940 might have given necessary employment and at the same time built a great armed force. . . .

"We were unprepared mentally and physically for Pearl Harbor and now we are being left similarly unprepared for what will come after the war."

G.O.Policy. "Since I disagree with many of the policies, both domestic and foreign, of the Government that presently holds such power, I am dedicated to the removal from office of the man and the group who exercise it. ... I, who have never been accused of excessive partisanship, believe that the only instrumentality that can ... end that power is the Republican Party. . . . The Republican Party will not deserve leadership and can not win if it merely attempts to coalesce under its banners the various negative groups within the country. ... It must seek to make America ... a land of ever-expanding opportunity. . . ."

Five Points. On the design of his ever-expanding America, Wendell Willkie offered a five-point domestic program:

> During wartime, eliminate wasteful, socially unnecessary expenditures; in peacetime, keep steep inheritance taxes, modify income taxes to restore incentive.

> "Make our enterprise system completely competitive. . . . Where enterprise excludes competition, such enterprise must be regulated."

> Make labor "an essential part of the Government"; let labor "help determine Government's fiscal, domestic and international policies. Thus labor will share the responsibility and the results."

> Base a farm program "not upon the Administration's doctrine of scarcity . . . but in expanding markets," particularly through international trade.

> Equalize economic ups-&-downs by controlled expenditures worked out jointly by industry and government.

One World. "The future depends upon our finding a method of cooperation with the rest of the world.

"In my opinion, we are not yet at the blueprint stage. I know we will never get there if we start by making exclusive offensive and defensive alliances between any two of the principal allies. . . . Such alliances originate wars.

"I know we will never get there if America tries to play a hand at the old game of power politics. We must encourage . . . and work exclusively with the forces that are neither Nazi-tainted nor Fascist-stained. . . . America must be willing to agree to bear its share in any military effort to prevent or repel aggression."

Willkie's international formula: "A joint Declaration of Intention" by the U.S., Britain, U.S.S.R. and China, "as a preliminary to forming a common Council of the United Nations . . . eventually of all the nations."

Off-the-Record. Earlier, Wendell Willkie faced 100 Missouri G.O.P. bigwigs and businessmen at a spark-charged luncheon in St. Louis' Hotel Jefferson. One Missourian came out mumbling: "He tore into us like a biting sow." For Willkie had said to the big men from Missouri:

"I don't know whether you're going to support me or not, and I don't give a damn; you're a bunch of political liabilities anyway."

Missourians agreed: they had been shown.

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