The Discovery of a Principle in a Nutshell

The precise pronunciation of Romani may have stopped reverberating in the Stockyards Amphitheatre, but the troubles that called it forth are still rattling about Republican circles in Puerto Rico. The dispute, as important in principle if not votes as any of the larger contests aired at the GOP convention, has simply shifted from the convention floor, where viewers glimpsed it only during the ludicrous moments when the threeman delegation was polled, to the National Committee, where Eisenhower enthusiasts in Puerto Rico have filed suit to oust the pro-Taft National Committeeman and woman.

Typical of all the contests, Puerto Rico's troubles began when a convention of six hundred odd selected one slate of delegates and a rump of forty-eight selected another. The legal delegation included one Eisenhower rooter, Mr. Julia, and one for Stassen, Mr. Romani, while the rump electees included two men for Taft. Common to both groups was a supposedly neutral delegate.

Minus Mr. Julia, who was detained by some aspect of his formidable commercial pursuits, both delegations travelled to Chicago and two days before the Convention began reported to headquarters. There the National Committee's general counsel, Ralph Gates, reminded them of a bit of red tape which they had left loose-ended: they had not registered officially twenty days in advance of the Convention, an oversight which according to Party rules could cost them their seats if the party leaders wished. A bargaining session was in order, and since the National Committee had already adjourned, Gates and Gabrialson decided the case themselves.

The delegate belonging to both groups was seated of course, and the trading concerned which of the other three--Mr. Julia was ignored on account of his absence--should be placed on the temporary roll. At length they all agreed on a deal, authored by one of the Puerto Ricans, which seated Romani from the legal delegation and Blenes from the rump as the second and third men, provided that the latter be the delegation's chairman and its contribution to the all-important credentials committee.

Mr. Julia, whom the Puerto Rican convention had elected unanimously, arrived a day before the proceedings began, unaware that he had been dealt out. It was at this point that an Eisenhower enthuiast from Massachusetts learned of the deal, collected the unseated delegates, and persuaded them to file a contest. The Secretary of the National Committee, who exclusively had the right to certify disputes and who had been thoroughly jostled by the steam roller in the performance of her task, agreed that a contest existed and that it should be certified to the Credentials Committee.

On the Committee's schedule, Puerto Rico was one of several caselets sandwiched between the Georgia contest and the equally important Texas and Louisiana disputes. Whoever assumed that it would be decided swiftly, however, guessed wrong. For one thing, Puerto Rico was the one case which Committee members had never heard before. This, in addition to the difficulties of the Spanish names, engulfed the Congress Hotel's Gold Room in ignorence and confusion. For another, Clarence Brown, floor leader for the Committee's Taftites, was aware of the deal made by Gabrialson and Gates, and was naturally touchy on the whole question.

Brown made the first move, a point of order to throw out the case on the grounds that the National Committee had not heard it. The Chairman, who had been selected by a partisan majority, agreed instantly, which precipitated a lusty debate. Massachusetts' John Heselton, Brown's counterpart in the Committee's pro-Eisenhower conclave, moved to overule the Chair. Washington's Eastvold declared loudly that he thought it ridiculous for the steamroller to crush one single delegate. Brown winched, rose in protest, and moved adjournment estensibly to allow Committee members their evening victuals. Again, the Chair readily granted his motion.

Whether, in this interval, Heselton threatened Brown with a point of order to oust both delegations altogether--which was possible because of their fardy registration or whether it was a matter of simple persuasion. Brown withdrew his point of order after supper. With five minutes allotted to each side, the Committee began examination of the case.

During the preceding altercation, Mr. Julia, an easily frightened type who, if you looked carefully, could be seen slouching down Michigan Avenue hunched up so people might not notice he was there, had in a surprising burst of courage demanded his Rights. The Chair had thunderously shouted him down, and Mr. Julia had disappeared. Now that the time had come to present his case, Mr. Julia was nowhere to be found. There was a brief recess consumed in the search, as sargents-at-arms, Committee members, attorneys, and delegates hunted for him; when all proved fruitless, the case opened anyway. Soon, however, looking more frightened than ever, Mr. Julia appeared, apparently from the recesses of the hotel lavatory where, some said, he had been struggling with a bout of nervous diarrhea.

The merits of each side were few and simple. The Julia group claimed to be the electees of the true convention, while the Blenes group based its case on the fact that the National Committee's call came to them. Once the attorneys were through, the Committee began a raucus internal argument. Eastvold repeated his declaration, and the member from Rhode Island took up the strain. He first suggested that the call was unimportant in this case since the National Committeewoman from Puerto Rico was married to one of the Rump delegates, and then harrangued his colleagues on Gate's part in the deal--accusing the General Counsel of personally arranging yet another "steal." A bellow issued from the audience, and Gates himself marched to the podium. There, on a point of personal privilege quickly granted by the Chair, he defended himself passionately and at great length.

The Committee's Taftites had by no means accepted a passive role, and finally one of them put a motion to unseat Romani, replace him with the third Rump electee, and otherwise leave the delegation as Gabrialson and Gates had bequeathed it. After another wrangle, the Committee passed this motion, and since the neutral delegate whom both groups shared had voted with the Taft men on all issues, this virtually deprived the legal Puerto Rican convention of any representation whatsoever.

Though not by plan, the Credentials Committee argued the case a second time--during the next day, at the session's end when everyone was exhausted from the bigger battles. The member from Michigan, claiming that the inscrutability of the Spanish names had confused the Committee into perpetrating a great injustice, moved a revote. Brown, starting like a warhouse to the sound of trumpets, bellowed a point of order, and the wrangle began anew. Heselton took the podium and threatened to include Puerto Rico in the minority report, a threat which due to lack of time and the great bitterness on the Convention floor never materialized. This argument merged with another--something to do with motorcycle escort for Committee members to Convention Hall--and the Chair adjourned the session amid general confusion.

The contest's originator, the gentle- man from Massachusetts, gave up for the moment and awaited the nominee's selection. As the Convention's choice was an encouraging one, he held a meeting with Gabrialson and the five Puerto Ricans in a room beyond the podium to decide the dispute, a meeting which, as he put it, "damaned near drowned out the balloting for Vice-President."

Because Permanent Chairman Martin decreed that both factions had to agree on any proposal that he presented to the Convention as a whole, the two North Americans had to figure some way of seating one of the delegations and buying off the other with a face-saving title. Gabrialson first suggested seating the Rump delegation and titling the others Honorary Delegates. The Rump group rose in dudgeon and began arguing that the folks at home would attach far more honor to Honorary Delegates than to the common varsity. The legal delegation maintained that the Rump group had no right to any representation whatsoever. A fist fight broke out between two of the Puerto Ricans and the blows continued until Gabrialson withdrew his suggestion.

Gabrialson then proposed Honorary Vice President of the Convention, a nobler variant of Assistant Honorary Sargent-At-Arms which was handed out to one man in every delegation. This had no more appeal than his earlier attempt, and another boxing match began. The shouting and swinging lasted until Gabrialson made yet another try, Assistant Honorary Vice-President of the Convention. Both sides rose in noizy protest at that point, for it seems that titles carry honor in inverse proportion to length, and neither side was satisfied. During the melee that followed, someone yelled that Blenes was a disbarred lawyer and Blenes, denouncing the accusation, walked out in a rage. The meeting had to break up fruitless.

Eisenhower had, however, told the man from Massachusetts that he was personally interested in seeing the real Puerto Rican party represented on the National Committee. The legal convention's nominee for National Committeeman therefore has field suit before the National Committee to remove the pro-Taft Puerto Ricans. The Committee has met but once--to learn "the wishes of the nominee" in regard to the Chairman--and did not take up the suit. As the Committee appears to be somewhat emasculated during the current campaign and therefore will probably not meet too often, no settlement may appear for some time