U.S. At War: Bricker in the West

Ohio’s John Bricker, plowing on against odds favoring Tom Dewey, moved into California last week. At a press conference in San Francisco’s ancient St. Francis Hotel, he surprised newsmen with his growing sureness as a campaigner, pleased photographers by turning his handsome profile. Then, before the heavily Republican Commonwealth Club, which had heard from Harold Ickes on the day before, John Bricker made his fightingest speech yet.

He charged, in sum, that the President’s leadership in the crucial prewar years left the U.S. unprepared, either by physical armament or mental attitude for the war.

Said John Bricker: “Is that the kind of leadership which is indispensable for keeping America’s position of leadership in the world order? War in the Pacific might not have occurred if the American people had been informed of the Japanese menace and we had been prepared. I say to you that ignorance of the Administration, or its failure to inform the public, whichever it was, is one of the gravest derelictions in all our history.”

Next day John Bricker lunched at the executive mansion with California’s Governor Earl Warren. Then, at San Jose, he shook hands with at least half of California’s delegation to the G.O.P. convention. He was missing no bets.