Groundswell

"I'm just going to let nature take its course," said Senator Arthur Vandenberg, defining his strategy in building up General Douglas MacArthur for President. "When things are going your way, you don't try to change them."

Nature-taking-its-course looked like this last week:

>Illinois's MacArthur for President Club formally served notice that the General's name will be entered in the state's preferential primary in April.

>Joseph P. Savage of Chicago, founder of the first MacA.f.P. Club, was preparing a national convention of offspring.*

>The Timken Roller Bearing Co., Canton, Ohio, was "irritated" that anyone could have misunderstood its full-page MacArthur picture ad in various magazines and-newspapers as a political endorsement.

>Senator Vandenberg, chief of staff of the MacA.f.P. guerrillas, reiterated that "until he [MacArthur] says he won't, I assume that he will."

>The McCormick-Patterson papers and the Hearst press had contributed towards the cause by stopping their private MacA.f.P. boom.

>The Australian press urged General MacArthur, commander in chief of all Allied forces in Australia, to clarify his attitude toward the U.S. political scene, because "prolonged uncertainty should not be allowed to prejudice this theater of operations."

The strategists of the MacA.f.P. drive preferred to propose the nomination on the basis of the General's military magic rather than on his undisclosed political views. Senator Vandenberg felt that no ordinary campaign would fit the occasion, but that only a dynamic groundswell could convince the Republican convention to nominate his candidate.

*Last week, MacA.f.P. clubs existed in various stages of maturity, in Illinois, Wisconsin (where a Favorite Son organization claims 15,000 signed up members), Missouri, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Ohio, Montana, and California.

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