Taft Declares

Ohio Republicans had told Senator Bob Taft last summer that they were ready to go all-out for him for the presidency. Would he please let them know before Nov. 1 whether he wanted the job? Last week, with a few days to spare, Bob Taft said he did.

He had made his inspection tour of the West and it seemed to him that the race was "wide open." He would not himself enter any state primaries, but he would not bar other people from entering him. "After the Senate meets I shall seldom be able to leave Washington," he wrote G.O.P. State Chairman Fred Johnson. Thus, while he would be influencing his chances daily, by action in the Senate, his campaign for delegates would rest principally in the hands of the Ohio G.O.P.

He designated two people to run things for him: Ohio Representative Clarence J. Brown, bull-throated, bull-necked newspaper publisher who once directed a Knox-for-President movement, was tactical director of the 1946 G.O.P. election campaign, and claims the smelt-eating championship of the U.S. Congress; and Mrs. Katharine K. Brown (no kin), vice chairman of the Republican National Committee, founder of Dayton's Junior League, member of the D.A.R. and Colonial Dames of America, and vice president of the Ohio Yellow Cab Co.

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