Death, Taxes and Stassen

EACH YEAR the swallow's return to Capistrano and we are reminded that nature prevails and that things haven't changed too much. Other things don't happen quite so often but do give us something to look forward to. A whole generation awaits the 1986 return of Halley's Comet from its 75 year trip around the solar system. A little closer to home every four years Harold E. Stassen runs for president.

Stassen is a monument to American perseverance; it's just a shame he didn't know when to quit. His hopeless quests for the presidency have become such a part of American folklore that sports writers often refer to habitual losers like the Red Sox or pre-Moses '76ers as the Stassens of their league.

Stassen was faster out of the blocks than almost any other politician in memory. So fast that in the early 1940s he was commonly referred to as "The Boy Wonder of the Republican Party." Born the son of a Minnesota farmer 76 years ago, he graduated from high school when he was 15 and got his law degree seven years later. In 1938, at the age of 31, he was elected governor of his state, the youngest man ever to do so. In 1940 he gave the keynote address at the GOP national convention. He served two and one half terms before going on active duty in the Pacific. After the war he returned to public life and was one of the first to use the strategy that Nixon, Carter, Reagan, and perhaps Mondale have used so effectively. He traveled constantly, speaking to anyone who would listen.

In his first and most successful drive for the White House he covered 160,000 miles and 40 states in 18 months before the GOP convention. But the Republicans were not to recapture the White House for another four years so the field was crowded. He won only the Wisconsin and Nebraska primaries but his delegates split the party which went to the convention with the nomination still in doubt. Ohio Sen. Robert A. Taft offered him the second spot on the ticket in exchange for his delegates but Stassen refused and forced a second and third ballot. But before the third, Taft saw his support eroding and, still unable to secure Stassen's support, conceded the nomination to New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey.

Stassen tried again four years later but managed to go to the convention with only 19 delegates. He soon threw his support behind Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ike remembered and later made Stassen chairman of the Foreign Operations Administration. In 1955 he moved up to the cabinet level post of special assistant for disarmament. A hawk who had advocated the use of nuclear weapons against China during the Korean War but a strong advocate of negotiation, he was in charge formulating the "Open Skies" proposal and negotiating an arms control agreement with the Soviet Union. But he embarrassed Eisenhower in 1957 by revealing sensitive information to the Soviets and, facing a Congressional investigation, resigned early the next year.

HIS EFFECTIVE political life was over. But he didn't stop trying. He ran for governor of Pennsylvania in 1958 and mayor of Philadelphia in 1959. In 1960 he was a vocal opponent of Nixon and tried to oppose his nomination at the convention. Since his ousting from the Eisenhower administration he has practiced law, but he still remains convinced that he is the man to run the country. He ran against Nixon in 1968. Reagan in 1976 and 1980 and on September 9 of this year became the first Republican to announce his presidential candidacy.

Over the last 40 years his policies have changed little, although he has tempered his earlier advocacy of the possible use of nuclear weapons. Now he supports a bilateral freeze. Like many politicians he sees the need for full employment and a balanced budget, and advocates what he calls a "Creative Center Policy." He supports social programs and wants to expand the service side of the economy. While he detests government regulation of domestic commerce he advocates strong tariffs on imports from our allies who he says haven't been doing their share militarily and rely too heavily on the U.S. for defense. He tables his foreign policy "The American Eagle Policy," embodying "the power, strength and the reserve of the eagle." He says we should tone down our meddling in other countries but must have the power and respect to act in times of crisis.

In a recent telephone interview he spoke almost wistfully of American power in days gone by. "There were the many crisis situations in the Eisenhower years and we never lost a single soldier," he said. He says we never should have gone to Beirut in the first place and that the invasion of Grenada was a misuse of our power. He would have left both crises up to the United Nations. Since its inception he has been a strong advocate of the U.N. and wishes it were more effective. He was one of two Republicans President Franklin D. Roosevelt '04 sent to the first organizational meeting of the U.N. and argued against the veto power enjoyed by powerful countries.

Stassen admits that his chances of capturing the White House are "very, very remote," but insists that he is ready to serve if things happen to go his way. He has almost no national support or campaign staff and he returns phone calls quickly. He is concentrating his campaign in New Hampshire and Iowa, traveling quietly, speaking at high schools and civic associations hoping to build momentum. And like George McGovern and Jesse Jackson, he notes that running for president is a way to say things people ought to hear. "That's a minimum of what you accomplish. There's no time you can discuss things like during a presidential campaign," he says.

So we shouldn't be too hard on Harold Stassen. In certain respects, he's a symbol of the democratic system. After all, anyone who's over 35 and native born may run for president. And if no one else decides to challenge Reagan in the Republican primaries. Stassen may do better than he has in years. This is the first time Stassen has run against an incumbant and there is always the chance that peope fed up with Reagan might just vote for anyone but Reagan.