Stokes: Warren out of race for Vice President
Eliminated by choice as GOP keynoter
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Washington –
The selection of Governor Earl Warren of California as keynote speaker of the Republican conventions eliminates him as a possible vice-presidential nominee, for which he had been mentioned as running mate with New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey.
Instead, the inclination of Republican leaders is to pick their vice-presidential candidate from the Midwest.
This was the word received here from the meeting of the arrangements committee of the Republican National Committee which also recommended that the convention again elect Rep. Joseph W. Martin (R-MA) as permanent chairman, as it did in 1940.
3 others suggested
It is customary to select both as keynote speaker and as permanent chairman men who are not candidates for the presidential or vice-presidential nomination, for the obvious reason that these positions should not be used to promote candidacies or influence the convention.
It was with the understanding that Governor Warren is not a candidate for second place on the ticket that he was chosen to deliver the keynote address, it was learned.
Among Midwesterners available for second place on the ticket, those mentioned most prominently are Ohio Governor John Bricker, now campaigning for the presidential nomination, Rep. Charles A. Halleck (R-IN), a House leader and chairman of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, and Rep. Everett M. Dirksen (R-IL), who is also an announced candidate for the presidential nomination.
Gesture of governors
The selection of Governor Warren for the keynote address was recognition of the importance of California in Republican consideration, and a gesture to the 26 Republican governors who have assumed major influence in party councils and affairs. The governors will be powerful in the convention.
Governor Warren will have control of California’s 50 votes at the convention. Delegates will be elected at the May 2 primary. The delegation will be uninstructed.
Prefers Cabinet post
The Governor, it is said, was averse to the vice-presidential nomination, for which he has been prominently mentioned. He would prefer a Cabinet post as Attorney General, should the Republicans win, it is reported, because of experience fitting him for such a position. He was Attorney General of California for eight years.
The elimination of Senator Arthur Vandenberg (R-MI) as the keynote speaker, for which he was considered, was regarded here as due to his championship of the nomination of Gen. Douglas MacArthur who has won virtually no support among Republican leaders.
The Senator is reported now as cooling off considerably toward the general as the result of his letters to Rep. A. L. Miller (R-NE), recently made public by the Congressman, and the Senator said to be drifting toward the Dewey camp.