By Thomas L. Stokes
Milwaukee, Wisconsin –
A human-interest drama, as old as men and politics, is being played here as an accompaniment to the Wisconsin presidential primary.
It concerns the personal relations of two prominent political figures, once staunch allies, now divided by ambition.
One is Wendell L. Willkie, who is moving about this state, like a circuit-riding evangelist, seeking to aroused the people to elect his slate of delegates in the April 4 primary so that he may continue to seek renomination as Republican presidential candidate. He is warming up. The hair is beginning to fall down over his eyes.
The other is the much younger Harold Stassen – he is 36 – thrice-elected governor of neighboring Minnesota, now a lieutenant commander on the staff of Adm. Halsey in the Pacific.
Wendell Willkie is the once-defeated presidential candidate who is trying to comeback.
LtCdr. Stassen is the younger man who, like youth forever, thinks it is now his turn.
With that idea his friends entered him in this primary against the older man he helped four years ago, despite the fact that he had removed himself from politics to go into the service.
Perceptible coolness develops
The story begins back in the spring of 1940 when the strapping Governor of Minnesota became interested in the aspirations of Wendell Willkie to become President. Mr. Stassen had been selected as keynote speaker of the 1940 convention and he became a figure in the convention.
At the appropriate, dramatic moment he came out for Mr. Willkie. His skill as floor manager of the Willkie campaign was quite a factor, it was generally recognized, in the victory against some of the shrewdest political operators in the party. In the campaign, that followed Governor Stassen did yeoman service.
He was reelected governor. There began to be talk of him for 1944. A perceptible coolness developed between the two men. Mr. Willkie never for a moment gave up the idea of renomination and he worked at it constantly. But the young man had ideas of his own. He let Mr. Willkie know that he was now on his own.
Governor Stassen’s stature grew when he was reelected a third time, revealing vote-getting ability which the party so needs. He announced during the campaign that he was going to resign after his legislature adjourned and go into the Navy, which he did.
Meanwhile, with the aim of building up a national reputation, he made speeches and wrote magazine articles. He developed a plan of post-war world organization, with a very specific blueprint, that attracted national attention. It was reflected in the Ball-Burton-Hill-Hatch post-war resolution in the U.S. Senate. Then he left for the service.
Gives lift to campaign
His friends did not give up their dreams of him as President, nor, it seems, did he, for just the other day he put himself into the running by his letter to Secretary of the Navy Knox, saying he would accept the nomination, though he is not a candidate, and he would ask to be retired to make a campaign if the convention picked him. this gave a lift to his campaign here.
Mr. Willkie resented this show of ambition by his one-time ally, and revealed it in his statement of reaction.
Likewise, LtCdr. Stassen’s friends here resented Mr. Willkie’s demand that the young man withdraw from the race, since he could not be here to discuss the issues. They point to his record and his fulsome discussion of national issues before he went away.
The irony of this rivalry between the older man trying to come back and the young man who wants his chance, is that both attract the same sort of support here, and each probably will hurt the other by splitting that vote.
It recalls, too, another famous political feud, between an older man who wanted to come back and a younger man who wanted his chance. The name of one was Alfred E. Smith. The name of the other was Franklin D. Roosevelt.