Evening star., 1952-05-13
The Political Mill :.
The Political Mill
Convention Bottle Due
Over IS Delegates
Ruling on seotins Could Settle
Republican Nomination
By Gould Lincoln

A desperate fight between the sup
porters of Senator Taft of Ohio and
those of Gen. Dwight D: Eisenhower
over contested delegate seats may mate
rialize when the Republican National
Convention meets. Already it appears
that as many as rs delegate seats
from four Southern StateS-may be in
volved. These are Texas. Louisiana.
Georgia and Mississippi.
It is conceivable that the decisions
made first by the Republican National
Committee, then by the credentials COM
mittee of the convention. and finally by
the convention itself, will settle the
presidential nomination. Incidentally. it
was the decision of delegate contests
that won for the late President and
Chief Justice William Howard Taft in
the Republican National Convention Of
1912. The Taft forces had complete
control of the Organization ma
tional committee-at that time. The
result was the seating of the Taft dele
gates. and the eliminating of the con-
testing Teddy Roosevelt delegates.
Similar Case Could Arise.
A similar situation could a4se next
July, when the Republican hosts gather
in national convention. Taft supporters,
it is claimed. will control the Repub-
lican National Committee. The national
committee will hear these delegate con-
tests. It will decide either for the Taft
delegates or for the delegates for Eisen-
hover. Too often in these contests cold,
hard partisanship controls rather than
the merits of the cases heard. When the
hovo hoov1 lorSlod hui hn
tioAa1 committee, that committee will
make up the temporary roll of the con-
vention. The convention will next elect
its temporary officers, including its tenn
porary chairman and keynote speaker.
It will ratify. later, the selection of its
credentials committee. Each of the 48
State delegations will nominate its
member of the credentials committee,
and so will the delegations from the
District of Columbia. Alaska. Hawaii,
Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
The election of temporary chair
man. if he were partisan supporter of
either Taft or Eisenhower, might have
great Importance. His decision. for ex-
ample, on whether the delegates, on the
temporary roll but under contest. be
permitted to vote on the permanent Or
ganization of the convention and on
the contests themselves, might be ruin.
Gus to the opposition. Elihu Root.
choice of the Taft faction in 1912 for
temporary chairman, and winner over
Gov. McGovern of Wisconsin. Roose-
velt man, made such a ruling-and il
was all over for the Roosevelt cham
pionS. During the Republican conven.
tion of 1912, the national committee,
which had the first whack at the prob.
lem. decided to seat 235 Taft delegates.
under contest and 10 Roosevelt dele
gates. Later the Roosevelt leaders set
tied on 72 of the contested seats to
carry on the fight. Gov. Hadley of Mis-
souri,, Roosevelt leader, entered q mo~
ton in the convention to prevent vots
on the contests before the convention
by "any delegate now under contest"
Jim Watson of Indiana, then a repre-
sentative, moved to table this motion.
and his motion was carried $50 to 499.
The Jig was UP for the Roosevelt par
tisanS.
80. Lineup Is Uncertain.
No one knows for sure how the Re-
publican National Committee will line
up at Chicago on the aft-Eisenhower
contest. The relative strength of Taft
and Eisenhower in the credentials COM
mittee. still to be picked, is also a guess.
The national committee will. as usual,
select early in June a list of temporary
officers for the national convention. to
be recommended to the convention.
When the convention meets. the Taft
and Eisenhower leaders will have to
decide whether they will make a fight
on the proposed temporary chairman.
A great effort, it is said, will be made
to get neutral for the temporary
chairmanship-if such a man can be
found That is the attitude of the
Eisenhower campaign managers.
The Taft people will have, it is said.
a majority in the committee which
makes the recommendation of tempo
rary chairman. A suggestion has been
made that Senator Bridges of New
Hampshire, Republican floor leader Of
the Senate, be selected for temporary
chairman. Senator Bridges was neu-
trail, publicly. in the aft-Eisenhower
primary contest in New Hampshire.
However, he was the selection of the
Taft supporters in the Senate for the
floor leadership against Senator Salton-
stall of Massachusetts,, who had declared