Volume 18 , Issue 10

1948 - Dewey's Forces Launch Forceful Drive For Votes

It was in the 24 June 1948, Thursday, page 1, of the Kingsport Times, Kingsport, Tennessee, that the following headlines read: "Dewey's Forces Launch Forceful Drive For Votes." This was the year the Republican's had their "Brokered convention."

Found on Newspapers.com

Philadelphia - AP -- Gov. Thomas E. Dewey tied down the throttle oaths date in his drive to steam roller the Republican convention into a third ballot - and possibly earlier - presidential nomination.

AS the time neared for the first call of the states, the New Yorker's forces were ready to pour every available scrap of voting fuel into the boiler in the first two tries for the coveted prize.

With that steam up, the Dewey strategists counted on coasting to victory on the third roll call if they don't pull the trick earlier.

Against this, Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, Harold E. Stassen of Minnesota and a scattering of favorite sons fought a defensive, delaying action.

We also learned that Senator Loverett Saltonstall withdrew as Massachusetts favorite son presidential candidate and came out for Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York.

Dewey leaders claimed they would reach 500 votes - only 48 short of the nomination - by the second ballot. And with that start, they said, nothing can stop him. These claims were quickly and vigorously disputed from the other camps.

"That's rubbish," said Ted Gamble, convention manager for Stassen, in a typical opposition comment delivered from the crowded, sweaty floor of the convention, now entering its climatic fourth day.

Taft said Dewey won't hit 400 on the first count. "The Dewey blitz has been stopped," the Ohio senator insisted.

But a "we've-got-the-votes" quote came from J. Russell Sprague, New York national committeeman and a top Dewey leader, who added: "They can't stop us."

The opposition's strategy was for each candidate to hold his lines as firmly as possible for two ballots. This would require cooperation - and it seemed likely to be forthcoming - from such favorite sons as Gov. Earl Warren of California and Senators Raymond Baldwin of Connecticut and Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts.

Warren's bloc of 53 California votes was one of the key links in the coalition, and Dewey's forces were making strenuous but thus far futile efforts to woo the west corner away.

The coalition - agreed upon in talks between Taft, Stassen, Gov. James Duff of Pennsylvania, Gov. Kim Sigler of Michigan and National Committeeman Harold Mitchell of Connecticut - was to force a convention recess before the third ballot.

This would give time for the opposition to look over its strength and possibly a free on a single candidate to back. The plan had the approval of Warren and of Sigler, who placed the name of Senator Arthur Vandenberg before the weary delegates in the early hours of that morning.

Vandenberg, self-styled "problem child" of his supporters because he says he doesn't want the nomination, remained one of the most likely compromise candidates of the Dewey dissenters. This was emphasized when Stassen himself dropped around at the Michigan delegation's headquarters early that morning to talk things over with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., of Massachusetts.

Lodge, who had been plugging for Vandenberg, told a reporter that Stassen had come at his invitation to talk over the anti-Dewey movement generally.

"There were no deals proposed and none made," the Massachusetts senator said.

Lodge said that so far as he knew there had been no break in the plan for Stassen and others to hold their strength intact for themselves for the first two ballots and then talk things over.

There was authoritative word from Stassen's camp, meanwhile, that the only candidate the former Minnesota governor would consider going for, other than himself, was Vandenberg. Taft's hope of winning the nomination seemed to lie in the wild maneuvering that would follow any collapse of the Dewey boom. Taft said he was "confident I will be nominated in due time." The Ohio senator was widely credited with having the firmest sort of backing among the delegates pledged to him.

If Dewey toppled, Taft's friends would try to stampede the delegations.
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