Bob to Bert to Bricker

Senator Robert A. Taft of Hamilton County, Ohio last week wrote a letter that: 1) fulfilled a gentleman's agreement; 2) launched Ohio's Governor John William Bricker as a 1944 Presidential candidate.

Robert Taft had looked ahead: last month Bricker was elected Governor for the third term with a whopping majority, was in shape to challenge Taft's hold on the Ohio delegation two years hence. Besides, politically wise Robert Taft saw brewing a clash between liberal and Old Guard wings of G.O.P.--a confirmed middle-of-the-roader like John Bricker could maybe line up the in-betweens and the Old Guard, keep Robert Taft out of the cold.

So now Senator Taft replied to a letter from Bert Long, Hamilton County G.O.P. chairman. Was it too early. Bert Long had asked, to start another boom like the one in 1940 that came close to giving Taft the nomination in Philadelphia? Said Taft: "My definite reply is that I am not a candidate." His reasons: he liked the Senate and wanted to run for it again; "John Bricker loyally supported my candidacy in 1940--I intend to do the same in 1944."

Taft and cautious John Bricker, both favorite sons, made a mutual assistance pact before 1940. Bricker promised then not to compete for delegates at Philadelphia. Taft gave the assurance that if his campaign were unsuccessful he would step aside for friend Bricker in 1944.

Taft had timed his letter well--the G.O.P. National Committee was meeting in St. Louis (see below), GOPoliticians were beginning to look around and talk of political availability.

Midwest politicos believe John Bricker can consolidate the center and extreme right factions of the G.O.P. Always careful, ready to take no definite stand except on economy, he cannot be tagged as isolationist, or Old Guard. As Governor he has not been forced to take a positive position on national or international affairs. In his first year as Governor (1939) he turned a $40,000,000 deficit into a $3,000,000 surplus by airtight squeezing of the State treasury, and at the expense of cities, school districts, public relief. When a relief crisis developed late that year, many a liberal complained about letting Ohio's unemployed go hungry. Bricker answered that the question was one of city responsibility and made a hit with the business community, which to him is the part that counts.

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