 It's time for the Laun Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour, brought to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, a presentation of the Laun Jean Wittner Watch Company, maker of Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Laun Jean. Good evening. This is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Laun Jean Chronoscope. Mr. William Bradford Huey, editor of the American Mercury, and Mr. Kenneth Cramer, executive editor of Business Week Magazine. Our distinguished guest for this evening is the honorable Robert S. Kerr, United States Senator from Oklahoma. The opinions expressed are necessarily those of the speakers. Senator Kerr, it's a pleasure to have you this on your return engagement on the Chronoscope. And it seems particularly proper to have you tonight because our audience has been looking at a Republican convention. And I dare say that a great many Americans have forgotten that there are Democrats who are running for president. So tonight, sir, we'd like to have some of your impressions of the Republican convention. Now, did you happen to hear a general Eisenhower's acceptance speech? No, Mr. Huey, I didn't. Well, why not, sir? Well, to tell you the truth, I felt he'd probably accept, and Ms. Kerr and I hadn't had our dinner, so we went and ate. I knew if he didn't, I'd hear about it for long. Well, now, I suppose you did follow the convention. Very closely. Yes, I did. What are some of your impressions of the Republican convention, sir? Well, the Republicans have again demonstrated that they spend four years making a record and then four months running away from it. They have again refused to nominate a man who had anything to do with the making of the record that he's going to have to run on. They've selected one who has had no part in making the record, and so far as I know, no part in formulating the program for the future. You don't think that the Republicans have selected their strongest potential candidate? Well, that, of course, remains to be seen. They have at least this advantage in the man they've selected. He doesn't have the liability of any Republican record of his own. However, he's going to have to run on the record that they've made and the program that they've formulated. Now, nobody knows whether he's an able campaigner or not. They've got men who are experienced campaigners. Do you feel that he'll be able to conduct as aggressive a campaign as would have Senator Taft, for instance? Not on the basis of the Republican program and the Republican record. No, I do not. Do you think Senator Taft would have been able to have conducted a better campaign? Well, certainly Senator Taft would have had the advantage of at least knowing something about what the record and the program was and what his position was and what he thought about it. Well, I was of the impression that the General Eisenhower has been telling the American people what he believes for a month now. You mean you think that there's still some doubts? Well, he's been indulging in glittering generalities where he said anything on many questions. He's said, I don't know. I'll say this for him. He's down to the point now where he's going to have to get down to specifics. He's going to find out that in this contest that he's a part of now that people are going to expect and demand that he fish or cut bait. Well, isn't the selection of Eisenhower as a candidate going to change the complexion of the issues? Foreign policy, for example. Ike is certainly not an isolationist. He's much closer to the Democratic party line on foreign policy, isn't he? Are you going to make a campaign issue out of foreign policy? Well, he'll have the opportunity to state his position on foreign policy and it's well known that so far as he's personally concerned, he has supported the foreign policy in the main of this administration. But you must remember this, that he's not running alone. He's running as a part of a party that have a slate of candidates and they have candidates for the Congress as well as for the presidency. And should he win and should they win and should he favor the same foreign policy in the future that he has indicated he favors in the past, he'd find himself in the very unhappy position of being the captive of of his own party who violently disagree with him and who regardless of what he thinks about it or says about it would not let him have or carry out a foreign policy similar to that one which the Democratic administration has carried out. But he has been pretty clear in saying what he believes is the foreign policy of this country or what it should be and he has been a participant in activating the policy that we have today. Oh, yeah, but let me tell you, he's been a participant in carrying out the policy of the majority party. Now, if he becomes a part of the majority party, which are dedicated to a different foreign policy, you see Eisenhower has been in the very fortunate position thus far of being in charge of whatever situation he was a part of. He was the commander in chief of this or the chief of staff of that or the president of something else where his orders were carried out. Now, if he thinks he can give that gang that he runs with in Congress orders and have them carry him out, he ought to get off in the cool and quiet of some evening and have a heart to heart talk with Harry and he'll get the facts of life about how little the executive sometimes has to do with what Congress does. But hasn't it been true that in the last two Democratic administrations we have seen the chief executive be the molder of the foreign policy? It seems to me that's getting to be the style these days. Well, but you see the chief executive had the majority of his own party and a minority of the opposition party supporting him in that foreign policy. Now, if he has a great majority in his own party fighting him in it, then he's going to find that he's under a handicap which he won't be able to overcome any more than he's going to be able to overcome the handicap in this campaign of having to carry the Republican banner. March on the Republican record, run on their program. Those are awful heavy loads. I don't believe I can carry them. Senator, to come back to the convention, the high points of it, were there any surprises for you? For instance, were you surprised at General McArthur? Anything in General McArthur's speech? Oh, no, no. I heard McArthur's speech when he made it the first time and then I read about it when he made it the second time. Well, now what about your colleague, Senator Dirksen? He is supposed to be the great art of the Republican party. Well, I enjoyed what Senator Dirksen had to say. He was just enough of a realist and knew just enough about what was happening and going to happen that while he had the nation for his audience, he proceeded to read the obituary of the Republican campaign for 1952. Senator, I'm sure that our audience has appreciated your criticism of the Republican convention, but after all, you now are facing the Democratic one and you are one of the three or four leading candidates for the Democratic nomination. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. I hope you'll get that message over to the convention out of Chicago. How many men do you expect, how many names do you expect to be placed before the Democratic convention? I'm sure there'll be a minimum of 10 candidates for presidency and Democratic convention. And what is the approximate delegate lineup at the moment, sir? Who are the leading candidates now? Well, I don't think there's any doubt, but what Mr. Russell and Mr. Keith Offer are the two front runners, I would say that they'd have in the neighborhood of 300 apiece. And where do you stand, sir, there? Well, I'm hoping that I'll be no worse than fourth. I think I'll have a minimum of 150 on the first ballot and then more as we go along. What is the Democratic campaign platform going to be? Is it going to be the repeat? That is, are you going to follow through on the Truman program? Well, of course, nobody would be presumptuous enough to say what the platform committee would bring to the convention or what the convention would do with it in the main. Of course, they'll approve it, but they have demonstrated in the past that sometimes they make such changes as they want on the floor of the convention. I'd say this, the difference between the Democratic party and the Republican party is this. They spend four years making a record and then four months running from it. We spend four years making a record and then four years running on that record and on the proposals that we have to improve it for the following four years. Now, sir, what our audience has just seen the big fight over the seating of Southern delegations and the Republican convention? What will be the similar fight in the Democratic convention? What will your big inter-party battle, inter-party battle, be over? Well, there'll be a few contested delegations or delegates, not too many, and then we'll have honest men hearing the contest and men of equity and justice deciding them, and then our convention will have that confidence in their own committees and their own judges that when the reports are brought in, it'll be a matter of routine to accept them. Now, Senator, as a final question, will you give our audience just some idea of how you think the campaign will develop from this point on and your prediction as to what you think the outcome of the campaign will be? Well, I think that the campaign's going to go like this. Mr. Eisenhower has a great decision to make, General Eisenhower, pardon me. He's going to have to decide whether to make a Me Too campaign, like Dewey and Wilkie did, embrace the Democratic record and program, or pull a taft and try to blaze a new trail. We do not know, but wherever he goes, we'll meet him. Well, thank you very much for being with us, sir. The editorial board for this edition of the Laun Jean Chronoscope was Mr. William Bradford Huey and Mr. Kenneth Kramer. Our distinguished guest was the Honorable Robert S. Kerr, United States Senator from Oklahoma. The results of the 1951 competitive trials at the famous Geneva Observatory have just been published. First prize for the best watches in category C, that's wristwatches, was won by Laun Jean. The series prize for the first five watches in this class was also won by Laun Jean. And all 12 of the Laun Jean watches entered won certificates. Now, thus is written another chapter in the Laun Jean Record of Success in Observatory Accuracy Competition, a record which began in 1878. And one more reason why throughout the world, no other name on a watch means so much as Laun Jean. The only watch in history to win 10 World's Fair Grand Prizes and 28 gold medals, and so many honors for accuracy in fields of precise timing. Though every Laun Jean watch is made to the single Laun Jean standard of excellence, you may buy and own or buy and proudly give the Laun Jean watch for as little as 7150. The gift watch of great prestige is Laun Jean. The world's most honored watch, premier product of the Laun Jean Wittner watch company since 1866, maker of watches of the highest character. We invite you to join us every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening at this same time for the Laun Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour, broadcast on behalf of Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, a distinguished companion to the world on a Laun Jean. This is Frank Knight reminding you that Laun Jean and Wittner watches are sold and serviced from coast to coast by more than 4,000 leading jewelers who proudly display this emblem, agency for Laun Jean Wittner watches. Tune in the Democratic Convention on the CBS Television Network.