1941: Republican Party

Republican Party, one of the two major parties in the United States, in 1941 continued to be the minority party in the Federal Government; and, as for several years past, it controlled fewer state and local governments than the rival Democratic party.

In the midst of an international crisis which called for national unity with no rocking the boat by partisan politics, the Republicans, who were greatly outnumbered in both houses of Congress, were somewhat confused and divided over President Roosevelt's policies in foreign affairs and national defense. Since it was an off year in elections with nothing more important than scattered Congressional and local elections, however, Republican leaders were evidently allowing troublesome questions of national party policy to go unsettled for the time being.

Opposition to Willkie's Leadership.

During the early months of the year Wendell Willkie's titular leadership of the party was a storm center of party debates. As a former Democrat, whose complete conversion to Republicanism had always been doubted by old party war horses, and whose endorsement of President Roosevelt's foreign policy in the 1940 campaign had embarrassed isolationist leaders among the Republicans, Willkie was none too popular with certain elements in the party. Then as they saw it, he proceeded to cap the climax of a losing race for the presidency by announcing his 'all-out' support of President Roosevelt's policy of aid to Britain. And to make matters worse he exhorted his 'fellow Republicans' to follow his example.

By the middle of January the smouldering opposition to Willkie's theoretical leadership of the party had flared into open revolt in the Middle West. On Jan. 18, the influential Republican organ, the Chicago Tribune, called upon Willkie to leave the party. Later in the month, bitter criticism of Willkie was with difficulty suppressed at a convention of the Young Republican National Federation held at Des Moines, Iowa. This particular attack upon his leadership ended rather favorably for Willkie when the convention voted a resolution which was virtually an endorsement of the Lease-Lend Bill. At attempt at Omaha a few days later to smother any open discussion of Willkie, for the sake of party harmony, did not succeed. Sixteen Republican state leaders who had assembled there for a meeting refused to be gagged and insisted upon discussing Willkie and his relationship to the party. They were reported as reaching no definite conclusions, but an indirect slap was taken at Willkie in the form of a unanimous resolution expressing complete confidence in Republican members of Congress, House Minority Leader Joseph W. Martin, Jr., and Senate Minority Leader Charles L. McNary, with no mention whatever of the party's last candidate for the presidency.

On Jan. 30, 1941, Joseph W. Martin, Jr., Chairman of the Republican National Committee, announced a meeting of the committee to be held in Washington on March 24. The chief business of the meeting was to be the selection of a national chairman to succeed Representative Martin, who wanted to resign, alleging that he was too busy in Congress to perform the duties of chairman, and that he had only agreed to undertake the work for the duration of the presidential campaign. Under the circumstances outlined above, it was feared by Republican leaders that the election of a successor to Martin would provoke an acrimonious wrangle and possibly split the party wide open. In the face of this undesirable prospect which threatened the party with irreparable harm, Willkie, according to newspaper reports, urged Representative Martin to retain the national chairmanship at least another year in the interest of party harmony. Friends of Senator Robert A. Taft and Thomas E. Dewey stated that these two influential figures in the party were prepared to unite forces against the selection of a new chairman by the Willkie elements, but were not opposed to Martin's remaining in the position.

Before the Republican National Committee met, it was learned that Representative Martin had yielded to the many pleas and was willing to keep the post in the event that the committee refused to accept his resignation. With the support of Willkie, Dewey, Taft, and McNary, as well as other leading Republicans, including Alfred M. Landon, Martin's continuance as national chairman was a foregone conclusion. As a condition of his retention of the office, Chairman Martin, who had been serving without compensation, stipulated that the committee must provide him with a paid assistant to look after the detail work.

When the Republican National Committee met on March 24, Martin's resignation as chairman was unanimously rejected. Sinclair Weeks, of Massachusetts, was elected treasurer in succession to C. B. Goodspeed, of Illinois, who had resigned. Mr. Weeks' previous position as chairman of the executive committee was filled, in turn, by William F. Knowland, of California. A week later, Ernest T. Weir, of Pittsburgh, resigned as chairman of the finance committee. It was agreed that Mr. Martin's paid assistant was to come from the Middle West so as to give that stronghold of Republicanism more adequate representation in the party organization.

The expected introduction of criticisms of Willkie for his support of the Lease-Lend Bill failed to materialize at the March meeting, partly, no doubt, because of Willkie's disclaimer the preceding day of any interest in the 1944 nomination for president. No policy resolutions at all were offered, which in itself was unusual, since the committee had not met since the previous June, and ordinarily resolutions in praise of the party's candidate are introduced at the first meeting after a presidential election. Apparently though, party leaders believed that such a resolution in this instance was so much dynamite which it would be best to keep out of the meeting. The point is debatable, but in the absence of any concrete action by the Republican National Committee, it would seem that the so-called 'titular leadership' remains with Willkie. It is, however, a rather empty distinction since the inside control of the party is undoubtedly in the hands of Representative Martin, who at the end of 1941 appeared to be the only man capable of holding the various factions together in anything like a united Republican front.

New York State Elections.

In New York State, a pivotal one in national elections, the harmonious relations established among leading Republicans in 1941 may prove to have far-reaching consequences. It will be remembered that the opposition of Kenneth F. Simpson, Republican leader of New York County, to Thomas E. Dewey's candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination was a serious obstacle to the latter, and was also largely responsible for the rift between up-state and down-state Republicans. Simpson, a Willkie supporter, resigned as county leader in December, 1940, when a fight over a local appointment showed that he no longer controlled his county committee. Simpson's death the following month completely removed any lingering effects of the feud. Thomas J. Curran, who was elected to succeed Simpson as county leader, promptly announced his alignment with Edwin F. Jaeckle, State Chairman, and J. Russel Sprague, National Committeeman, both of whom had been at loggerheads with Simpson. Jaeckle, on his side, after conferring with Curran, expressed his satisfaction with the unity within the party.

The selection of Curran as leader of New York County, the home of both Willkie and Dewey, was generally regarded as foreshadowing the Republican nomination of Dewey for governor in 1942, since it meant that the latter would not again be in the awkward position he was in at the 1940 National Convention of not being able to hold his own important county in line. Dewey was not a candidate for reelection to the office of district attorney of New York County in the recent election. LaGuardia's defeat of the Democrats in the New York City mayoralty election of 1941 was viewed in some quarters as auguring well for the chances of the New York State Republicans in 1942. LaGuardia, who had never taken the slightest pains to conceal his contempt for Republican politicians, and who had openly campaigned for President Roosevelt in national elections, was a bitter pill for many Republicans to swallow as their candidate for mayor for the third time. There was no sign, however, that his designation by the party created any complications which would extend beyond New York City politics. Dewey, Willkie, and Curran all endorsed LaGuardia's candidacy and urged his election.