Evening star., 1949-12-03
Baseball to Politics Seen
As Habit in New jersey

As Habit in New Jersey
Harper, One Time Player Here, Choice
Of G. o. P. for Thomas House Seat
+. By Gould Lincoln
From baseball to politics-big league, at
that's getting to be habit in New Jersey.
Albert (Ab) Hermann. once q Boston Braves
infielder, q Jerseyman, recently became
executive director of the Republican Mas
tional Committee. And now Henry c.
Harper, who played ball for Washington
a quarter century ago, is the choice Of
Republican leaders to run for the House
seat now held by j. Parnell Thomas, who
is about to be sentenced for accepting
kickbacks from salaries Of his ONCE force.
If and when Thomas resigns or is expelled
by the House, and Gov. Driscoll calls an
election, Mr.. Harper will get the COP
nomination.
Mr.. Harper left baseball to 60 into the
contracting business and has made for
tune. At the same time he became interested
in politics. Last year he ran for senatorial
nomination, but lost out to Senator Hen
erickson. At present he Is State Labor
Commissioner. When Mr.. Harper opposed
Hendrickson, he was playing the game on
the side of former Senator Hawkes. extreme
conservative, and against Gov. Driscoll.
Whatever the trouble was, it now appears to
be patched up. and Mr.. Harper. 1t Is said.
has the 60 signal.
Bright Spot for COP.
New Jersey, which has the Republican
national chairman, Guy George Gabriel
son, too Is being used to show the country
that the Republican Party is still able to
win victories. Gov. Driscol was reelected
by some 10000 votes last month"; bright
spot for the Republicans when New York
was turning down Senator John Foster
Dulles Republican, for Senator elect Herbert
H. Lehman. Democrat. The Thomas dis
trict. the Seventh, has been Overwhelmingly
Republican for years 1t should be no tre-
mendous job to roll up big lead for Mr..
Harper there. In 1914, Thomas carried the
district by $4,000 votes: in 1916. a nom
presidential year when the vote was much
smaller by $4,000. However, in ls4S Thomas
lead shrank to q mere 10000. At that
time much publicity had been given to the
charges that Thomas was padding his con-
gressional payroll and having the salaries
turned over to his own bank account. There
was an uproar and the Democrats made
as much of it as they could. Thomas was
indicted two days after his reelection.
If Thomas should not resign or be ex-
PEELED by vote of the House, then no
Thomas would keep right on drawing his
House salary for q year. and he could
use 1t to pay a hne-if he is fined by the
court. It is the common belief, however.
that Thomas is on his way out, one way
or another.
Something to Cheer.
This election in New Jersey, when 1t
comes, and the election to fill a vacancy in
the Sixth Massachusetts, Congressional Dis
trict, are expected to give the COP some-
thing to cheer about. The vacancy in the
Massachusetts, district was caused by the
death of Representative Bates, killed In an
airplane accident. This district, too, has
been strongly Republican in the past.
Chairman Gabrielson has launched drive
for grass roots sentiment to help the
COP determine whether a restatement
OF party policy is necessary before the
congressional elections next year, and. Il
10, what to put in the statement. Republic
cans are widely divided over some OF tho
days issues However. the hope is that
agreement can be had on a number OF
important basic matters and the party may
20 to the country united.
One hopeful sign is that contributions to
the Republican National Committee ex.
ceeded the expenditures Of the national or
ganization in November. This means the
committee was able to stop drawing on re-
serves One reason for the falling of IN
party funds in the summer and fall was an
agreement not to start campaigning vigor-
ously for funds until after Labor Day.