Between Rounds

The shouting over the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee quieted to a whisper. The early candidates had been wheeled out and promptly knocked full of holes. Now, in the last few days before meeting in St. Louis to name the chairman, G.O.P. leaders quietly hunted for a compromise candidate who could soothe ruffled tempers and prevent an open fight.

Wendell Willkie had apparently won his battle against the man who once seemed to have the chairmanship in his grasp: Illinois Committeeman Werner Schroeder, darling of the Chicago Tribune, of some of the Old Guard, numerous G.O.P. Willkie-haters and a group who merely liked Schroeder's acknowledged skill as a political organizer. Wendell Willkie did not control enough committee votes to beat Schroeder: all he had to fight with were his convictions and his strength as a symbol of G.O.P. progressivism. At week's end, that seemed to have been enough.

Attention now turned to a man who seemed to some Republicans to be heaven-sent as a compromise candidate: onetime Congressman John B. Hollister. Personable, pipe-smoking John Hollister is from Cincinnati, and it is the Midwest's turn for the chairmanship. He is the law partner of Ohio's Senator Robert A. Taft. At the 1940 convention, he captained the Taft-for-President forces, fought Willkie tooth-&-nail. But afterward he became a director of the Associated Willkie Clubs of America, boarded the campaign train as an aide, was with Willkie constantly from early September until election day. Asked by a newsman last week whether he was an Old Guard or Willkie Republican, conciliatory John Hollister replied: "I'm not anybody's man."

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