The Texas Steal

Taftmen were worried about Texas. Eisenhower supporters had carried the precinct and county conventions overwhelmingly for Ike, only to be unseated by the Taft-controlled organization at the state convention in Mineral Wells (TIME, June 9). The only Taft argument was the charge, based on assumptions, that the Eisenhower voters were Democrats. A wave of disgust at Taft's Texas "steal" had swept across the country. Something had to be done.

Some New "Contests." As the Texas hearing was scheduled to begin, National Committee Chairman Gabrielson read a telegram from Herbert Hoover, who said he had tried to settle the contested delegate fight. In his efforts, said Hoover, he had suggested "to Mr. Taft's supporters that protests should not be raised in New Jersey, Connecticut and Washington," and they had agreed. Now, he added, he hoped that the committee would arrive at "an amicable and equitable settlement" of the Texas dispute. Hoover seemed to be saying that the Taftmen had been generous; now the Ikemen should reciprocate. But the fact was that there were no real contests in New Jersey, Connecticut and Washington which could be balanced against the contests in Texas and other Southern states.

Gabrielson picked up a letter from Bob Taft. Now that he had fully analyzed the Texas situation, said Taft, he proposed a compromise: the delegation should be split 22 for Taft, 16 for Ike. The Eisenhower delegation from Texas stood 33 for Ike, five for Taft; the Taft delegation was divided 30 for Taft, four for Ike, four leaning to MacArthur. Said Taft: "While I will suffer a delegate loss in making this proposal, I am doing so because I think it is so generous that its equity cannot be questioned."

Actually, Taft was trading part of his Texas claim for the Georgia grab, and stood to gain votes in the process.

No Deal. After reading Taft's letter, Gabrielson recessed the hearing and urged the Taft Texans, headed by National Committeeman Henry Zweifel, and the Texans for Ike, headed by Houston Oilman Jack Porter, to get together. But the Eisenhower men refused to deal.

From Porter, Taft's analysis of the Texas situation later brought a hard-hitting statement: "In Senator Taft's letter to the national committee, in which he was permitted ... to appear as an advocate and judge ... he showed cynical disregard of morality ... In the 7th, 13th and 16th Congressional Districts, there were no contests. When the Eisenhower delegates from those districts walked out of the state convention and joined the Eisenhower convention, there were no delegates remaining to represent those districts. And yet Senator Taft claims in his letter that he won those districts."

Back in the packed hearing room, there was soon evidence to show why the Taft forces were fearful about Texas. The Ike-men brought on a parade of witnesses to tell what happened at the precinct, county and state conventions.

John Paul Jones, a tall, firm-jawed World War II Navy officer, told what happened in northeastern Texas' Rusk County: "By majority vote I was elected one of the delegates to the state convention. A resolution endorsing Dwight D. Eisenhower and instructing the state convention delegates to vote in his favor was seconded by [County Chairman] Joe Compton and carried by 13 t01 ... There was no walkout--no rump convention . . . Later that week, Compton, a longtime friend of Henry Zweifel's, received instructions to file a false return on that convention, naming a Taft slate of delegates and claiming a resolution had been passed endorsing Taft. When Compton was placed under oath before the state executive committee, he admitted that he had participated in the convention that endorsed Eisenhower, and he admitted that no other county conventions had been held, yet the state executive committee voted 39 to 19 to seat his 'dream' delegation."

One-Man Convention. Houston Lawyer Malcolm McCorquodale reported on Brazos County in southeast Texas. Said he: "The county chairman was a Zweifel henchman. He looked over these delegates and he saw he was going to get outvoted, so he just refused to call the meeting to order . . . He ran the delegates off the premises, held a county convention all by himself, elected himself delegate to Mineral Wells; he was seated at Mineral Wells, and cast the entire five votes for the county himself . . ."

When their turn came, the Taft forces called no Texans before the national committee. Three lawyers presented the case and bore down hard on the Taft argument: the Texas precinct conventions had been packed with Democrats, whose real motive was to trick Republicans into nominating a candidate who couldn't win.

The Taftmen did not try to prove that individual Ike supporters were, in fact, Democrats. The national committee simply accepted their general assertions that this was the case. On that point, former Representative Ben Guill, the only Texas Republican elected to Congress in the past 20 years, had a sharp comment. Said Ikeman Guill: "The people who attended those conventions conformed with the election code of Texas; they sent the declarations saying T am a Republican.' They did it in good faith, and I don't know how in the name of heaven the state committee down at Mineral Wells could take that list of fine Texas people and go down that list and say: 'This man is a liar; this man is a Republican; the next 25 people are liars; that is a Republican; the next 100 are liars; or here is a Republican.' "

When all the testimony and argument were in, the national committee's Taft majority landed its final blow on the Ikemen's heads. The vote: 60-41 to split Texas 22 for Taft and 16 for Eisenhower, exactly as Candidate Taft had suggested in his letter.

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