Mr. Pew's Ambassador

In the Middle West and Far West last week, local Republican leaders had a swift visit from none other than smooth, handsome John Daniel Miller Hamilton, the almost forgotten GOPolitico. Mr. Hamilton's trip had not been announced. But at week's end the New York Times printed a story that John Hamilton is off to wreck Wendell Willkie's chances for the 1944 G.O.P. Presidential nomination.

John Hamilton is best remembered for having managed the most disastrous Presidential campaign in U.S. history--Alf Landon's in 1936. Not so well known is his unquestioned organizing ability: before he retired as G.O.P. National Chairman after the 1940 convention, he had pulled his party out of enormous debt. Back in private life, he joined the potent Philadelphia law firm of Pepper, Bodine, Stokes & Schoch, attorneys for Joseph Newton Pew Jr.'s Sun Oil Co. In politics, Pennsylvania's Boss Pew stands for two things: 1) barrels of money; 2) a brooding dislike for Wendell Willkie and Franklin Roosevelt. (In the 1940 convention, Joe Pew released his block of 72 Pennsylvania delegates only after Willkie's nomination was assured.)

As Mr. Pew's ambassador, John Hamilton is cagily encouraging local GOPoliticians to tie up their State delegations to a native-son candidate. The obvious strategy: deadlock the convention so that a group of bosses, doubtless including Joe Pew, can name their own compromise candidate in 1920 Harding fashion.

This week, in Portland, Ore., John Hamilton indignantly denied that he was out "to knife anyone in the back," said he was just sounding out Republican sentiment. His further itinerary: California, New Mexico and then a visit with St. 'Louis's angrily anti-Willkie Edgar Monsanto Queeny.

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