Disorder in the Ranks

Stalking out of a meeting of the Republican National Committee last January, one disgruntled committeeman grated: "I'll give that guy just six months more." Last week, almost six months to the day, the committeeman saw his prophecy come true. In the interest of "harmony in our ranks," National Chairman Hugh D. Scott Jr. quit his job.

To a large extent, Hugh Scott, an agreeable, pipe-smoking Philadelphia lawyer, was a belated casualty of last November's election. Hand-picked by Candidate Tom Dewey last summer in payment for Pennsylvania's timely convention support, he had served out the campaign as a sort of front man for Dewey's own strategy board (after the election, he not only admitted this fact, but advertised it). When the Dewey strategists vanished from sight, Chairman Scott was still standing there, pipe in hand, a patient smile on his face, and looking as if this was nothing compared to what he had seen out in the Pacific during the war.

But the firing continued. Scott won his first skirmish with Republican rebels at the Omaha harmony and hair-pulling meeting last winter, when he got a 54 to 50 "vote of confidence" (TIME, Feb. 7). Since then he had been trying to find a platform that everybody could stand on, while critics thought he should have been out raising money. Congressmen felt that they, not he, should do the thinking about issues. As the wrangling increased, contributions dropped off: in the first five months of this year the committee had raised only $73,630 to meet expenses of $313,673A group of rebels from all party factions met in Pittsburgh early this month and demanded Scott's head. Now that they had it, they were not sure just whom they wanted in his place.* Among the likeliest candidates: New Jersey's National Committeeman Guy Gabrielson, Michigan's National Committeeman Arthur Summerfield, Nebraska's State Chairman A. T. ("Bert") Howard.

* The New York World-Telegram offered a suggestion: "A new party chief on a contingency fee and percentage basis. Settle with him after the ballots are counted. Pay him nothing if the party doesn't do better than it has in the last 18 years. Pay him a graduated bonus if he increases the Republican vote. Ought to try something to put some incentive into the G.O.P."

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