Evening star., 1949-01-29
The Political Mil

vi 'ioW foiitiSS, - Tiuyeu
Chairman Scott Gained Many Friends
With Victory Over Coalition
By Gould Lincoln
The Republican National Committee, meeting
In Omaha, has given demonstration of how
politics is played. And also how courage and
stick-to-itness can win what appears to be q
losing battle. Members of the committee went
West with blood in their eye. They were going
to shove National Chairman Hugh Scott
elected last June at the instance of Gov. Dewey
Of New York-right out of his job. They had
been particularly irritated because Mr.. Scott
had appointed an Executive Committee, almost
on the eve of the meeting, which was heavily
weighted with friends of Mr.. Dewey.
Hurried meetings of the Taft and Stassen
forces in the committee we're called and 1t was
finally decided to back Roy E. Dunn of Mime
sofa for the craftsmanship Mr. Dunn agreed to
make the race. Noses were counted and the
anti-Scott faction claimed they had IS votes,
a majority OF. the committee. lined up. But Mr..
Scott at the first meeting of the committees
luncheon-made frank, fighting speech which
did him lot of good with some who were on
the fence. ~
Indeed the Republican national chairman
now chairman "in his own right by virtue Of
his $3.50 victory in the committee voting-does
give the organization new look, fighting
look. He is a comparatively young mana
veteran Of World War II, when he saw service
with the Navy in the Pacific He demonstrated
his ability to handle difficult situation and
get away with>it Probably no other chairman
of Republican National Committee ever has
listened to such diatribe directed against him
in open session of the committee. Mr.. Scott
was polite to all his opponents, but he had a
stiletto of his own, which he inserted in the
hides of some of them on occasion.
Gained Friends.
Not all the efforts of the coalition against
Chairman Scott were able to bring him to
agree on a compromise candidate; not all the
warnings the oldsters gave that to permit the
contest to go to the floor would be to divide
the party seriously and leave him, if he won,
with committee hostile to his administration,
had any effect on him. He said he would fight,
and he did His victory by such slim margin
grew out Of this very determination to fight;
1t gained him friends
The only concession that Chairman Scott
made to the other side was revamping of the
Executive Committee of the National Commit
tee which. as appointed by him last week. was
heavily weighted with Dewey and Scott mem
bers, l3 to q The concession put four members
who had voted against Mr. Scott on the Execu-
tive Committee and the ratio between the war;
ring factions became to g.
There remains tremendous soreness on the
part of some of the anti-Scott faction, and
the chairman, unless he makes good, may
be in for another battle, they are warning.
Presumably, Mr.. Scott learned a lesson from
his recent experiences
As the battle got under way it was clearly
an effort Of the Taft and Stassen supporters
to repudiate the leadership of Gov. Dewey
as "titular head" of the party, which they
felt the retention of Chairman Scott and
the Executive Committee named by Mr.. Scott
would fasten on the party. Mr.. Scott, how
ever, in his speech to the committee, declared
that he was no candidates man: That Gov.
Dewey would not and could not be the presi-
dental candidate in 1852. Here, therefore,
Is clever technique of politics-Mr Scott
remains as chairman which is anything but
displeasing to Gov Dewey, and the COM
mittee gets assurance it is not to feel the
dominating hand of Leader Dewey.
Underestimate Moves
There were plenty of under-surface moves,
however Members of the Finance Com
mittee-so necessary when it comes to raising
funds for the National Committee and for
campaigns-threatened to resign if Chairman
Scott were tossed out on his ear.
Mr.. Scott, too, learned a lesson. His ap-
pointment Of an Executive Committee with
out full enough consultation with the various
elements in the National Committee was a
mistake-a boner, if you will-which might
easily have been avoided Without it there
would not have been the fare-up in Omaha
which might have cost him his job. There
had been some muttering that a fight would
be made to eliminate him as chairman, but
it had subsided-until the appointment Of
the Executive Committee.
Where all this leaves the Dewey forces,
the Taft forces and the Stassen forces Is
something else. Mr. Scott has definitely de-
clared himself no agent of Gov. Dewey At
the same time the Taft and Stassen forces,
who set out to get the scalp of Mr.. Scott
which, II 1t had occurred, would have been
hailed as a repudation of Dewey leadership
slipped up and sat down hard although
they succeeded in pointing up the fact that
Gov. Dewey must not be controlling hand
in the framing of Republican policy.
Roy Dunn is the one to be pitied. He was
taken up on a mountain and shown the
promised land, but that was all. He was the
choice of the anti-Scott bloc, after they
found it would be dangerous to put up former
Gov. Gates Of Indiana-whom the Indiana
Senators would not stand for. Mr.. Dunn is
regarded as conservative, old-line Republi-
can, whose election would have been hailed
as victory for the Old Guard, even though
he got the nod from the Stassen crowd