seems to me to be entitled to sympathetic consideration," a polite way of saying that

Ives needed psychiatric attention for ignoring the conservative mandate.63 A Taft

supporter had also written to the Ohioan expressing displeasure on Ives' early stance

on Taft-Hartley, prompting Taft to respond "I don't think Tom Dewey is responsible

for Ives' labor philosophy, but I feel quite certain that he has not done anything to

assist in getting the labor bill through which will meet general Republican approval.64

Langer, Morse, and Nevada's George Malone were the only Republicans to vote

against the bill. The overall vote reflects both the public apprehension with postwar

labor relations and Taft's intense desire to take a stand against the New Deal and its

pro-union stance.65

 The Taft-Hartley Act also divided the Congressional Republicans further from

the staff at RNC Headquarters, despite the fact that a conservative and former member

of the House was RNC Chairman. Since 1946, Donald Louden, head of the RNC's

Labor Division and a Brownell appointee, had been secretly negotiating with officials

of the American Federation of Labor to secure their support of a moderate labor

program that strengthened the Wagner Act. In February 1947, Louden wrote to

Brownell lamenting the fact that neither the House nor Senate Labor Committee staff

had contacted Republican headquarters for advice. Reece had tried to secure a

position on one of the labor committees for Louden, but Taft and Hartley refused even

to interview him.





63 Daniel Farnsworth, Letter to Thomas E. Dewey, 24 April 1947. Copy in Folder 12 (Irving Ives, April
1947), Box 94, Series II, Dewey Papers. This file is filled with letters expressing similar sentiments.
64 Robert A. Taft, Letter to Burrell Wright, 26 April 1947 Copy in Folder (Political 1947), Box 890,
Taft Papers.
65 Congress, Senate, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., Congressional Record (13 May 1947), 5117.