Evening star., 1952-07-03
The Political Mill
Taft Given Full Booking
0E Mn+;onnI Honon,;+koo
Delegates for Eisenhower
Are Knocked OFF Rolls
By Gould Lincoln


CHICAGO, July 3.-If the Republican
National Committee had the power to
nominate the G. o. p. standard bearer
for 1852 it would be Senator Robert A.
Taft of Ohio. Further, If the Ohioan
fails to become the partys presidential
nominee, it will not be because the ma
tional committee did not try to make
him so. The committee is supposed to be
neutral when there are a number Of
contestants for the presidential nomina-
tion. The individual members, however.
would be more than human If they did
not have their favorites. Acting as
committee, they have great power to in
fluence the choice of presidential candi-
dates, particularly when convention
times rolls around.
For example, the present committee
through its committee on arrangements
already has picked as the keynote
speaker a strong supporter Of Senator
Taft-Gen. Douglas Macarthur. 1t has
proposed Walter S. Hallanan of West
Virginia, Taft campaign manager, as
temporary chairman of the national
convention. This puts Taft advocate
in a position to make vital rulings.
affecting the chances of candidates.
Beyond this and Of even greater i'm
portance. the national committee. sit
ting as judge and jury in the con-
tests between Eisenhower and Taft dele
gates, has been knocking off Ike dele
gates and putting Taft delegates on tho
temporary roll of the convention.
Has Power and Is Using 1t.
It has this power, and the Taft ma
jority in the committee is using it. just
as other majorities in other years and
for other candidates have done. When
there was a threat to expose the COM
mittee hearings to the glaring light of
televiSion. live radio and newsreelS, the
Taft majority rose up and pulled down
the curtain.
Representative Clarence Brown Of
Ohio. a Taft leader in the COM
to conceal or cover up anything
the committee might do. He pointed
out quite correctly that newspaper
reporters were admitted to the hear
ings-although he did not mention
the fact that reporters are excluded from
the executive meetings at which the
committee votes on the contesting dele
gateS-and argues about them finally.
He said, too, and again correctly, that
television and radio commentators and
news broadcasters were permitted to at
tend the sessions.
Nevertheless, when the right to tele-
wise these contests before the national
committee was denied, millions of
Americans were denied the privilege of
seeing and hearing and judging for
themselves the rights and wrongs of
these contests and of the committees
decisions,
Argument was made by Mason Owlett,
national committeeman for Pennsyl-
vania and another Taft supporter, that
these quasi-judicial proceedings of the
national committee should not be made
a "sideshow." OF course, only the COM
m1ttee itself could have made them
anything comparable to sideshow.
Action Leaves Suspicion.
The action of the committee not only
disappointed millions of television fans.
but 1t left suspicion that things would
be done which the committee did not
care to have seen by these millions of
people-which is not so good with a
national election just around the corner.
The Democratic National Committee is
TO have its opportunity to hold hearings
on contested delegations-on of them
will be from Texas, too-within a couple
OF weeks. It's dollars to doughnuts that
the Democratic committee will welcome
TV and all its works, demonstrating how
stupid its Republican counterpart can be.
The Taft hold on the Republican
National Committee lies in the support
given the Ohioan by committee mem
bers from the II States of the solid
South"-Solidly Democratic in that they
never give their electoral votes to q
Republican presidential candidate. In
some OF the key votes in the committee
recently, 20 of the Southern members
have voted with the Taft forces and
only two with the Eisenhower people. It
lies. also. IN the support given him by
members from some Northern and Vest
ern States who have recently been re-
pudiated and denied reelection to the
national committee.
How representative or the sentiment
OF the national convention is this SUD-
port for Taft In the national commit
tee? How representative is it of the
sentiment Of the great mass of Re-
publican voters? Senator Lodge Of
Massachusetts,, Eisenhowers campaign
manager. says that the Taft support in
the national committee does not re-
fleet at all the feeling of the run-of-
the-mine Republican voters-and that
this will be demonstrated when the two
forces-Taft and Eisenhower-come to
grips in the national convention. Psy-
chologically, however, the Taft victories
in the national committee are having
their effect on the presidential nomi-
nation.