"Intelligent Minority"

One afternoon last week, in the lobby of the Kansas City Club in Kansas City, a newly arrived air traveler was talking to a small group of newshawks when an inconspicuous man who had just arrived by train came unnoticed into the lobby. He approached and held out his hand affably:

"Hello, John."

"How are you, Alf?"

The newshawks proceeded to ply Governor Landon and Republican Chairman Hamilton about their reason, for meeting. "This last campaign,"said Governor Landon, "has demonstrated that you can't build an effective organization in just four months. That's about what we're going to discuss."

The Republican also-ran of 1936 and his manager later produced a formal announcement: "Under the American system of government, the country needs an intelligent, constructive and militant minority. . . . This means the continuation of an active national headquarters that will be able to furnish the people of this country with a fair statement of facts. It means intelligent assistance to the Republican members of the United States Congress and, of more importance, the stimulation of the details of party organization. No man or woman who has assumed a position of leadership in the campaign just ended can fail to realize the deep obligation due to the more than sixteen million Americans who voted their convictions. I have expressed to Mr. Hamilton my deep appreciation ... to all of those who joined in the common cause. They will not be abandoned.''

This meant. Chairman Hamilton explained, that the "largest permanent headquarters in the Party's history" would soon be opened in Washington. No new strategy was this. It was exactly the course followed by Democratic Chairman John J. Raskob when, in 1928 after Al Smith's drubbing, in spite of a huge Democratic deficit, he opened permanent quarters in Washington, hired Press Agent Charles Michelson and set to work preparing Herbert Hoover's downfall. But there are notable differences: 1) Republicans will have difficulty in finding another Michelson, 2) John Hamilton, unlike John Raskob, has not great personal wealth with which to play sugar-daddy to his Party. Last week John Hamilton talked blithely of spending two or three weeks raising money to pay the huge Republican deficit whose full size is still undetermined but which will probably exceed $1,000,000. It took Financier Raskob and his party more than four years to pay off the Democratic deficit of $1,550,000.

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