included plans for substitute measures that significantly weakened the Works Progress

Administration, housing legislation, and Federal aid for medical care. While both men

agreed on several key issues, Taft believed that limiting the growth of the Federal

bureaucracy and implementing tax reductions should be the party's top priorities,

whereas Dewey viewed the FEPC and a more accommodating labor program as the

central issues. To some degree, this reflected different political philosophies, but

mostly it centered on competing campaign strategies. Dewey thought these programs

would attract more voters than the traditional Republican program, whereas Taft

believed the Party needed to reaffirm its principles to win the next election.34

 On 21 December, Taft, Vandenberg, Martin, Maine Senator Wallace White, and

Nebraska Senator Kenneth Wherry, met with Dewey at the Governor's suite in the

Roosevelt Hotel. Initially, both sides were fairly close on policy goals, but the

discussion soon turned to control of the RNC and the party organization. Dewey had

not maintained strong relations with Capitol Hill Republicans during the election, and

Taft was not willing to defer to Dewey on policy or publicity matters. Dewey

contended that he would not seek the nomination in 1948. His only purpose for the

conference, he claimed, was to unite the party behind a plausible, positive program

that would attract voters. Taft, Wherry, and Vandenberg balked at his assertions and

asked for Brownell's resignation so that they could appoint a chairman who shared

their policy aims. Both sides refused to budge, so the meeting ended in failure. While

they reached accords on a number of points, the stubbornness of both groups marked

the opening round in the latest GOP factional controversy. Both party leaders wanted

to call the shots to enhance their chances for the 1948 nomination.35


34 Robert A. Taft, Letter to Thomas E. Dewey, 13 December 1944. Copy in Box 34, Taft Papers.

35 Smith, Thomas E. Dewey and His Times, 438-441.