National Reports
SHELDON, COURTNEY R.
National Reports GOP Kingmakers Eye Herter By Courtney Sheldon Boston Among those who know him best, Governor Christian A. Herter unquestionably is the prototype of the man the internationalist...
...Abandonment of isolationism is the Republican party's main issue...
...Dean of Harvard Law School, recently stated that in his opinion Governor Herter is legally qualified for the Presidency...
...Some Herter backers are quietly contacting influential GOP politicians in other states, but in the main they are selling their candidate by emphasizing his widely acknowledged competence as an administrator and his ability to satisfy all elements of the Republican party, despite his internationalism...
...This puts Herter in somewhat the same position as when he first ran for Governor in 1952...
...He declared then, and has many times since, that "if the Republican party is going to survive, it must be represented by as many individuals with a worldwide outlook as the party can find...
...National Reports GOP Kingmakers Eye Herter By Courtney Sheldon Boston Among those who know him best, Governor Christian A. Herter unquestionably is the prototype of the man the internationalist wing of the Republican party will back for the Presidency if President Eisenhower steps out of the picture...
...What he lacks in bombast he makes up for in the impression of warm sincerity...
...He had spent 10 years in Washington as a Congressman and was drafted, not overly enthusiastically, by GOP leaders to take on a popular, rough-and-tumble Democratic incumbent, Governor Paul A. Dever...
...Poor health was given as a primary reason...
...Long before Eisenhower's political posture was apparent, the purposeful, serious-minded Herter was an established moderate in domestic affairs and a fervent internationalist on world issues...
...There is no question that he would continue to be as outspoken as he was when he succeeded isolationist Congressman George Holden Tinkham in 1942...
...These victories were not sensational, but they were creditable in a state which increasingly has tended toward the Democratic party...
...Now, however, close associates insist that a man who continues to lead as vigorous a life as Herter, a duck hunter in the fall, is able to undertake any task...
...In private, they credit him with being fair-minded and sincere in his stands on issues which concern them...
...two years later, he became further entrenched by beating off a weaker Democrat than Dever...
...There is little that the leaders of the Eisenhower wing of the party don't already know about the 6-foot, 5-inch Bay Stater...
...Until the current talk of a Presidential nomination, many observers here assumed Herter was prepared to retire from public life...
...Erwin G. Griswold...
...A GOP politician who does not unnecessarily offend the right wing of his own party on domestic issues usually fails to win wide support from liberals and unionists...
...Few doubt that Herter would wage a vigorous campaign...
...He headed a House committee which investigated European economic conditions after World War II...
...What they don't know for certain is whether the dignified Massachusetts Governor has an appeal which will attract the broad-base support needed by a GOP hopeful...
...This is a perfectly natural vacation choice for a man of independent, inherited wealth and such intense interest in world affairs...
...They are, of course, somewhat restrained by the uncertainty of the President's plans...
...Others are not quite so sure, and there are several moves under discussion to force the courts to determine the issue...
...He is a fair orator, handsome, and possesses winning personal ways...
...Despite recurring mention of Governor Herter as a "dark horse" candidate, his supporters are not yet booming their man...
...In the midst of the flurry, Governor Herter went ahead with his plans to visit Europe...
...And they are also aware that Herter's chances, at this stage, are in the hands of the same GOP kingmakers who brought General Eisenhower into politics...
...But Herter does not have an anti-liberal record, and, in general, union political spokesmen have left him alone...
...Previous Presidential talk also had been dampened by the assumption that Herter's birth in Paris, though of American parents, barred him from aspiring to the nation's top executive position...
...The Eisenhower tide undoubtedly boosted Herter into the Gubernatorial chair...
...Herter himself was a member of that group before the 1952 Chicago convention...
...While a Congressman, his specialty was foreign affairs...
Vol. 38 • October 1955 • No. 41
