Full Steam

One phenomenon of the 1948 presidential campaign is its precocity: it is about five months ahead of schedule. So far almost all the news, and all the fun and dickering, have been on the Republican side. Last week's developments:

In Manhattan, the amateurish Draft-Eisenhower-for-President League granted its 17th and 18th state charters (to chapters in New York and Massachusetts). It also began passing out buttons ("I Like Ike") and got all tangled up in the political doubletalk of the week: "We want to keep away from any implication that he is a candidate. Though he hasn't said he won't be, he definitely has said he isn't." In New Haven, barnstorming Henry Wallace back-patted Ike as a "singularly enlightened man," predicted that he could win the presidency on either ticket, would carry all but nine states if he teamed up with Harold Stassen.

In Los Angeles, Speaker Joe Martin was a model of the professional at work. He confidently predicted a G.O.P. victory in 1948 by "a surprisingly heavy" majority. His press conference answers were short & snappy. Would he run for Vice President? "Who ever runs for Vice President?" What about Columnist Drew Pearson's remarks that Martin was seriously worried about generals-in-politics? "Who ever would contradict Drew?" Has President Truman been consulting or cooperating with Republican leaders? "I hold a fairly important post in Republican councils and I have never been told anything."

In Iowa, in the congenial Republican atmosphere of the Iowa Bankers' Association convention at Des Moines, Bob Taft* and Harold Stassen were as chummy as classmates at a college reunion. They had breakfast together. They appeared together for lunch at a Republican rally and were greeted by an orchestral medley of Minnesota, Hats Off to Thee and Beautiful Ohio. Then both spoke from the same dais. Said Taft, warmly: "Governor Stassen and I have differed on many issues . . . but we are prepared to compromise our individual views to ... maintain the solidarity of the party." Replied Harold Stassen: "I have a deep respect for [Taft's] integrity, his sincerity and his ability."

* The Christian Science Monitor's alert Correspondent Roscoe Drummond, recapitulating Taft's Western tour, reported last week that the Senator had fallen asleep in public once: at the Oregon-Texas football game. He also passed along a ditty, composed by newsmen to serenade Candidate Taft:

Oh, give me a home

Where the delegates roam,

With Republican leaders at play;

Where seldom a word

Of Tom Dewey is heard,

And Eisenhower's still jar away.

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