Now that the election is over, Wendell Willkie has become a much more sober and conservative speaker. He has also become a more sober and conservative political thinker--mostly more conservative.

In disavowing the more heated and bitter statements of the campaign, in pledging support for the defense of America, in pleading for an intelligent and constructive opposition, and in rejecting a cabinet post which had not yet been offered him, Mr. Willkie did nobly last night.

But in the bulk of his statements about national economic and political policy, the head of the Republican party demonstrated that haziness and self-contradiction which earlier earned him the soubriquet of "confused liberal." Only this time the strands were such that "confused conservative" would be a more accurate designation.

As Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Willkie set forth five points to which the administration ought to adhere if we are to have a "sound and solvent" financial history, instead of the inflation which he sees impending.

Stripped of their ambiguities, those points constituted in substance a call for less federal regulation of business--particularly an end to the present "punitive" attitude, and "adjustment of taxes and government restrictions" to "take off the brakes," and an abandonment of the notion of "nationalizing" any industries. There were, to be sure, random phrases which taken by themselves would make Johnny New Dealer himself happy. But the emphasis and the overall impression was conservative--in the sense of being a recommendation for government self-limitation.

In the light of the current effort for national nearmament, the proposals were little short of extraordinary. Neglected by the speaker was the fact that not less regulation but more is the inescapable concomitant of a defense program. To criminate bottlenecks, to prevent the very inflation which Mr. Willkie fears, to curb profiteering, and to carry out the pay-as-you-go idea which the Republican leader has endorsed--to do all these things, government activity is required.

Not merely the present regulations, but new ones related to priorities, to price-fixing, and to taxing, are made mandatory by the economics of war. For the responsible leader of the opposition to urge otherwise can only be characterized as dangerous. It fosters a resentment on the part of many citizens, and of our business--men especially, which may well hamper the efficiency of the national defense effort, and which is doubly regrettable for the very reason that the increased regulation is unavoidable.

With Mr. Willkie's demand that the opposition be strong, alert, and watchful, these will be general agreement. It would be well, however, if the opposition were also realistic. For, to paraphrase the Republican leader, "only the realistic can be effective, and only the effective can be valuable."