Atlanta Daily World

CAPITAL SPOTLIGHT
BY LOUIS LAUTIER
For the NNPA News Service

Whether you like Senator Robt. A. Taft of Ohio, "Mr. Republican," or not, there is no question in Washington about his honesty or forthrightness.

Eight months before the Republican national convention in Chicago, he is the only avowed Republican candidate for the Presidency.

At this stage, it appears that, unless General Dwight Eisenhower decides to become a candidate for the Republican nomination, it will be Taft vs. Truman in the 1952 election.

Taft is a middle-of-the-roader on civil rights. For example, on the question of fair employment practice legislation, he has favored a law resting on persuasion, mediation conciliation and education but lacking compulsion.

Some of the questions and answers at this press conference Oct. 16, at which he formally announced his candidacy, may shed some light on his views:

Q. How is Mrs. Taft (she has been very ill) and how does she feel about the announcement?
A. Mrs. Taft is reconciled to the announcement. Her health is improving and I doubt if she will take an active part in traveling, but I think she will take an active part in the campaign.

Q. Will you support the party nominee, whoever it is?
A. Yes. I will.

Q. Would you welcome the support of Senator McCarthy?
A. I would just as leave have the support of Senator McCarthy yes, and all Republican Senators, and I would be glad to have the support of any of them, including Senator McCarthy and Senator Morse.

(Senator Wayne Morse, Republican of Oregon is one of those urging Republicans to nominate General Eisenhower.)

Q. What are the issues going to be in the campaign?
A. Well, my feeling is that as far as you can tell at this long distance there are three main issues. One is the restoration of a program of progress within the principles of liberty rather than the principles of socialism. I think that includes the whole field of the Brannan (Farm) Plan, socialized medicine and all of the other regulatory measures of the Truman Administration advocated from time to time by President Truman. We need the restoration of a program to accomplish the continuation of progress that had been made under American principles in the past.

No. 2. I think, is the restoration of a government of honesty and integrity in Washington, and the elimination of this influence peddling and corruption which has shown in so many government departments under this Administration.

No. 3, is an attack on the judgment of the present Administration's foreign policy as revealed by the fatal mistakes they have made in the conduct of foreign policy, in the building up of Russia, and the Korean war, and other disastrous occurrences due to their judgment.

Now, whether there will be a current issue on foreign policy a year from now, nobody can tell because there is a rapid change in the national situation. But roughly speaking, I have said repeatedly in my speeches that the over-all strategy of the two parties today is apparently the same, and it is to prevent to the extent of our ability the growth of communism by military aggression or by propaganda.

The tactics of carrying out that strategy vary from day to day, and there may be great differences between the parties on those two particular questions. But what they will be six months from now, I do not know.

I have felt that there should be a complete re-appraisal of the whole program of anti-Soviet military action, because I think that it is reaching a size by 1952 and 1954 which will really be a serious threat to the economic stability of the United States.