Voice from Main Street

The long-dormant Willkiemen finally began to strike back. On the eve of this week's meeting of the G.O.P. National Committee, Vermont's granite-jawed Governor William H. Wills went on a national radio hookup to hit hard at those GOPsters whose first aim in 1944 is to stop Wendell Willkie.

Broadcasting from his home on Montpelier's Main Street, Chicago-born Governor Wills first extolled Vermont's rock-ribbed Republicanism. Then he tore into those who think the G.O.P. can win with almost any candidate. Said he:

"The last ballot in Kentucky was hardly counted when the four-year locusts of Republican politics blackened the horizon to blight the victory crops. . . .

"There was Alf Landon, John Hamilton, Joseph Pew, Senator Nye and the Rev. Gerald L. K. Smith; and, of course, the metropolitan McCormick-Patterson newspaper axis. They were loud. They were angry. They indulged in much loose talk. . . . These political locusts had nothing to say. . . . [They are] discredited mouthpieces of reaction. . . . They simply agreed in their hatred of the outstanding Republican of our time--Wendell Willkie."

The plain-speaking Governor called for an open fight between Willkieites and anti-Willkieites; he does not want another smoke-filled room. He said:

"My plea is ... for fair play in our convention. ... If Willkie becomes the victim of smart political manipulation, with a handful of bosses dominating the Republican convention ... I fear for our survival. Such a course means suicide for the Republican Party."

Would the Willkie wing secede from the Party if Willkie fails of the nomination? The threat was hardly that strong; but it served notice on the G.O.P. National Committee that the Willkiemen will fight for every tactical advantage. At Chicago this week they had given in on one point: the choice of Chicago as the convention city. They won another, perhaps more important: setting of an (early convention date, probably June 26. For the Willkiemen figure they will need months of work to reorganize the G.O.P., tossing overboard National Chairman Harrison Spangler and friends.

Perhaps Governor Wills's forthright speech helped Wendell Willkie with the G.O.P. rank & file, but it sent Willkie stock even lower among the professional GOPoliticians at Chicago. Among them there was a growing unanimity that New York's Governor Thomas Edmund Dewey was their man.

Backers of Lieut. Commander Harold E. Stassen were ubiquitous, hospitable and much in evidence. Biggest bungle came from National Chairman Spangler. He flatly announced that U.S. soldiers were 56% Republican, 44% Democratic. He based this opinion, he said, on a "survey" taken by four Army officers in England "in the course of their regular activity." Three hours later, harassed Harrison issued a hasty explanation. He did not mean to imply that the G.O.P. was meddling in Army affairs. He had just got a few reports from four old friends, now in the Army, who had sampled the opinions of men in four battalions.

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