National Affairs: Serious Moral Cloud

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Republican leaders of every stripe raised a chorus of protest against the roughshod operations of Taft forces in Chicago.

Early in the week, as the Taft steamrollers picked up speed, 23 of the nation's 25 Republican governors, in Houston for the annual Governors' Conference, joined in signing a telegram to Republican National Committee Chairman Guy Gabrielson. They asked him to abandon the basic Taft convention tactic: the rule that once pro-Taft delegates from contested states are seated by the Taft-dominated national committee and credentials committee, they must be allowed to participate in any full convention vote on the seating of other contested delegations. Said the governors: "We believe that if contested delegations are permitted to vote on the seating of other contested state delegations, the Republican Party . . . will enter a vital and difficult campaign under a serious moral cloud."

Next day, John Fine of Pennsylvania and Maryland's Theodore R. McKeldin, the only Republican governors who did not attend the conference, announced that they were in full agreement. Undismayed by this unanimous appeal from the Republicans who know how to get elected to executive office, both Gabrielson and Taft stuck to their guns. A reporter reminded Taft that the problem of voting by contested delegates was considered a moral issue by Utah's J. Bracken Lee, one of the Ohio Senator's three lonely supporters among Republican governors. Taft's reply was typical of his whole campaign: He snapped: "Governor Lee is all wrong."

Shortly after he reached Chicago from Houston, Governor Lee seemed to agree with Senator Taft's statement about him. Lee and the two other Taft governors—Len Jordan of Idaho and Norman Brunsdale of North Dakota—repudiated the Houston statement that they had signed. Their delegations voted with Taft's side in the rules fight. Said Lee: "The statement ... at Houston was signed ... to see that everything that was done was above reproach. But ... in fairness to everyone concerned, it is impossible for me to see how you can change long-established rules in the middle of the game."

As he spoke, other outraged Republicans were taking the moral position stated by the governor. Said California's Senator Richard Nixon: "The real issue is whether the Republican Party is to survive . . . whether the selection of the Republican candidate for President is to be determined by the will of the people or by a small clique of politicians who happen to control the party machinery."

California's Governor Earl Warren reminded Republicans that "a day of reckoning" would come in November. Michigan's Dr. John Wood, a Republican delegate who had once supported Taft, was more specific: "If Taft is the nominee, I will still work for him, but it will be a losing fight."