Speak Low

The Republican National Committee, which furnishes oratory to order, last week flavored its product too strongly. The G.O.P. ghost writers in Manhattan wrote dynamite-laden speeches for three Republican Governors, then released the texts without consulting the Governors themselves.

Connecticut’s Raymond E. Baldwin wanted some changes made. So did Illinois’ Dwight H. Green. And California’s independent Governor Earl Warren got angry when his canned speech arrived in Sacramento just 24 hours before his broadcast. Warren, who goes along with California labor, got a text salted with attacks on “the Earl Browder-Sidney Hillman-Communist-allied Political Action Committee.” Warren blue-penciled furiously. In Manhattan, red-faced GOPsters rushed out corrections.

“Merely Phraseology.” Next night Illinois’ able Representative Everett M. Dirksen spoke in Old Orchard Beach, Me. He too had been offered a Manhattan factory-made speech, which arrived just two hours before he was to broadcast. The speech accused Franklin Roosevelt of seeking the Presidency “under false pretenses,” and said that Governor Dewey would make a speech this week “and you’d better listen to what he has to say.” As Dirksen sat on the platform waiting to speak, he hurriedly crossed out the strongest sections. Two days later his speech was the subject of debate in Congress. Reason: G.O.P. Headquarters had released the made-in-Manhattan version instead of Dirksen’s own. Dirksen assured his colleagues it was all a mistake: “I like to be circumspect in my language. . . .”

G.O.P. National Chairman Herbert Brownell Jr., friend and choice of Tom Dewey, pooh-poohed the series of incidents. Said he: “Merely a matter of phraseology.”