Evening star., 1952-07-08
The Old Guard Bows

The dominant fact which emerges from the
defeat OF the Republican Old Guard in Chicago
yesterday is that Senator Taft does not have
the votes to control this convention
This does not necessarily mean that Senator
Taft has lost his fight for the nomination But
it does mean that he and his co-workers have
been talking through their hats in their confident
claims OF victory on any ballot of their choosing.
The race Is still to be run, and IL the 11O-vote
margin by which the Taft forces went down to
defeat on the "fair play" issue signifies anything,
1t Is that General Eisenhower now has the inside
track
This lop-sided defeat is the more significant
because OF the desperate, almost abject, efforts
OF the Taft heutenants to ward Of the decisive
vote.
The show began when Senator John w.
Bricker OF Ohio, Taft man from the word
60, strobe to the microphone and moved to adopt
the rules of the 1948 convention. If the ugly
shadow Of doubt had entered Mr.. Brickers mind.
1t was not apparent in his demeanor. Then
came Governor Langlie Of Washington, an
Eisenhower man, with his substitute proposal.
It's essence was that no contested delegate could
be seated even temporarily, unless he had been
approved by two-thirds vote Of the Republican
National Committee The effect of this was to
give the Eisenhower people what they had been
demanding, and it was not long before the
Taft forces revealed that they knew they were
licked. The tp-of came when Representative
Brown, also of Ohio, offered an amendment
which, in substance, would have accepted the
Langlie substitute If only the convention would
agree to seat seven disputed delegates from
Louisiana.
This had all the earmarks of face-saving
move designed to head off a vote on the Langlie
plan. Taft speakers took the rostrum and
pleaded for adoption of the Brown amendment,
the gist Of their argument being that in exchange
for just this one small concession they would
gladly yield to the Eisenhower people on the
other contests. It was not long before their
reasons became self-evident.
California cast all of its 20 votes against
the Brown amendment. Michigan voted As to
against it. Maryland was 10 to against, and
in the Pennsylvania delegation the adverse vote
was 81 to 13. The significance was clear enough.
Senator Taft did not have the votes that he
had been claiming. On this issue the pivotal
States were Overwhelmingly against him. And
the final tally was 54S votes for the Brown
amendment; 658 against. It was indeed bad
day for the Old Guard.
This result need not be taken as a preview
of the way the voting on the nomination will
60. Nor does it even mean that the Eisenhower
camp is assured Of the contested delegates it has
been claiming But it does justify the firm
conclusion that the Taft forces, controlling the
preconvention machinery, overplayed their hand.
Not having the votes they claimed, they fell
back on ruthless exploitation of their machine
power and the effort backfred In other cir
cumstances they might have gotten away with it,
But this time the force Of outraged public opinion
made itself felt and the Eisenhower people were
able to capitalize on the moral issue that had
been handed them. In spite of the bitterness
that has been engendered this, in the long run,
should be good thing for the Republican Party.
Not in many long year has it looked so much
like the party Of the people.