Chairman. He specifically focused on Reece, saying "No one with any sense would

question Carroll Reece's Republicanism. In 1948 he put on the most strenuous

Republican campaign that Tennessee has ever seen."11 The Alabama Republican

Party also supported Lonnie Noojin with a special resolution declaring Scott's attack

as "unjustified, unwarranted and without any truth in fact."12 Taft's endorsement of

the six RNC members singled out by Scott underscored Gabrielson's effort to keep

the Old Guard factions in command of the South. Taft disputed Scott's contention that

the southern GOP was kept purposely small and instead declared that the southern

leaders worked hard for the best interests of the party. While the merits of this point

varied from state to state, Taft's public remarks sent the clear message that he had a

special interest in the Republican organization in the South and intended to maintain

his ties to the region to boost his standing with the RNC.

 Scott's criticism of the southern Old Guard was short lived and he did not

broach the subject publicly again. By July, he was in the news again, this time as one

of twenty-one Republican congressmen who endorsed the declaration of principles of

the newly-formed Republican Advance.13 Created as a counterweight to groups such

as the NRRC, Republican Advance issued a detailed policy statement with the

expressed purpose of moving the GOP forward "in the spirit of its progressive past."

A number of points resonated with the rhetoric of the RNC, such as the promise not to

outbid the Democrats for the loyalty of special interest groups and the "principle of

self-help as opposed to the give-away state." More often than not, though, the


1 Robert A. Taft, quoted in New York Times, 3 May 1950.

12 Birmingham News, 9 June 1950.

13 Twenty of the twenty-one signatories were regularly associated with the Dewey group, including
Clifford Case of New Jersey, Walter Judd of Minnesota, and Jacob Javits and Kenneth Keating of New
York. The one lone conservative who signed on was Richard Nixon of California. New York Times, 4
July 1950.