The Evening Star MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1944. A NOTABLE AMERICAN.

Evening Star, Issue 25301, 9 October 1944, Page 4

The Evening Star MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1944. A NOTABLE AMERICAN.

The career of Mr Wendell Willkie was one of the most picturesque in the unpredictable field of American national politics. His bitter attacks on the New Peal features of the Roosevelt Administration carried him from complete political obscurity to win the Republican presidential nomination in 1940, and he probably came as near to defeating Mr Roosevelt as any Republican could have done when he won 45 per cent, of the votes. His defeat ai the poll did not fling him back into obscurity, as it has many other presidential aspirants, and he remained a notable figure in national and world affairs until his unexpected death. His actions after the 1940 election ' proved that he was by no means a shrewd politician with. his finger always on the • pulse of the electorate. Party politics were not important; to him, and the Republicans found it an '' embarrassment that their candidate of 1940 had been a Roosevelt supporter in 1932. Of pure German ancestry, he declared ho was proud of it, but he hated aggression and tyranny so much that be freely supported the President's call to the people to put their full efforts into the struggle against Germany and Japan He appeared to be the logical choice to carry the Republican banner again this year, but he began his campaign with a series of brutally frank addresses to all sections of the community who were seeking preferential treatment. This unusual activity earned him exactly no votes in the Wisconsin primaries in April, and he withdrew because it was apparent that the Republicans in the important Mid-west-ern States did not go all the way with him in his advocacy of every sacrifice for winning and shortening the war. and acceptance of the American share of responsibility for maintaining peace in the future. Although no longer a candidate for the presidency, he did not fail to point out to his party its duties in international affairs, and he might long have continued to exercise a powerful influence in American relationships with the outside world