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eae aoe ee: — eee ee ners eons ae a emergent ST ETE FES VOLUME 118, NUMBER 10, ISSUE 1736, NEW YORK CITY, MARCH 8, 1948 NewRepublic f | THE WEEK nnn BAD WEEK Every reader of headlines agreed’ that it was a bad week. Czechoslovakia ‘was bad, with ‘its ominous overtones . for the future. The rocky road to Pal- estine partition through the UN was bad, as people everywhere wondered =~ "whether the UN itself would now .go the way of the League. The long-secret agreement to give a thousand fighting planes to Chiang Kai-shek was bad, for painfully obvious reasons. Secre- taty Marshall’s plea for more money to _be given to Greece and Turkey, “Oper- ation Rathole,” was bad, as a confes- sion of failure up to now and a prom-— ise of more failure to come. Those who anxiously scanned the _ headlines for something to offset the gloomy tidings. found extremely thin fare. Frank (“Spec”) Shea had signed again with the Yankees, and the price of butter went down. It was not enough. EE FALLING BAROMETER WASHINGTON INR correspondent) The political barometer at Demo- cratic headquarters has fallen so rapidly since the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner that it now stands dangerously close to the storm-warning area. Two weeks - ago there was a flourishing crop of . vice-presidential aspirants on _ the Democratic side. Today you can cover miles of Capitol corridors without find- ing a single shy candidate for second place on the Truman ticket. ““Wihat’s happened in the last two weeks?” one puzzled Senator asked. “Everything is changed. Everyone be- lieves we're going to get licked.” A canvass last week of the top Democratic leadership in the two Houses and representative state chair- men, national committeemen and com- mitteewomen turned up no one who thought Harry could win. What caused the decline in faith in Harry? Some said it was his poor performance in his party-celebration speech that did it—coming right on top of Henry Wallace’s Bronx victory and the mounting Southern -troubles. Others said not even all that would have set off this psychological slump unless there were a secret conviction in most Democratic hearts that the Tru-. man. cause had always been doomed to failure. ‘ If mof Harry? Whatever the case, a few top Democrats are actually think- ing of doing something about replac- ing Truman as the party candidate. The first name that pops up when they discuss the question is still that of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. His statement certainly removed him from the Republican picture, but, the Demo- crats ask, must that close the door on " us, too? DRAWING BX JACOBI For the liberal-minded ones, there is Bill Douglas. Though he definitely re- moved himself as a possibility for Vice President with Truman some time ago, some of his friends feel the Justice would not refuse the number- one position if it were available under proper conditions. Of course, his views on civil liberties are even less accept- able to “white supremacy” Southerners” ~ than Truman's. So those who support him think he has a chance only if the Southern revolt comes off. At this point, we enter the field of _ what sounds like pure fantasy. For ex- - ample, it is suggested that if a fourth party, the. anti-Truman Southern Democrats, took the field, an. attempt should be made to persuade Henry Wallace to give up his candidacy in favor of an amalgamation with the Northern liberal Democrats behind Douglas. Alternatively, there is a Southern scheme to force the nomina- tion of an acceptable compromise be- tween Truman and the present anti- Truman forces, in the person of James F, Byrnes. While all this may appear highly uncealistic, it is so serious that many important Democrats are deter- mined to tell President Truman, at the earliest possible moment, how bad things look. Up to now, he remains undismayed. The last words Washing- ton heard him say as he took off for vacation were, “I’m just as happy as I can be.” a EE “JUST CHECKING” With their accustomed air of mys- tery, pairs of FBI agents sauntered into New York City offices.of more than 30 left-wing CIO locals last week. They had a number of casual questions te ask about union contributions to 1946 political campaigns, and also current y. H France nt ce Dee a tener \