Street Journal wrote privately that the next election "should be decided on principles"

and lamented the fact that the Dewey group was beginning to organize around a

candidate simply because he could be elected.20 Human Events, a publication that had

lost faith in the RNC in 1950, expressed hope that Taft would understand the

necessity of creating a hard-hitting campaign based on a concrete set of conservative

aims.21 Taft's people recognized this sentiment and based their pre-convention

campaign on giving these Republicans a candidate they could support.

 Initially, Taft kept his presidential aspirations quiet and publicly disavowed any

desire to run for the White House. Taft commissioned a low key, quietly conducted

survey of state and county leaders to accurately gauge his potential strength.22 This

responsibility fell to two of his most loyal partisans, former Undersecretary of the

Navy David Ingalls and Ohio industrialist Ben Tate. Beginning in Spring 1951, the

pair traveled from state to state visiting with prominent Republicans and business

leaders to test the level of support for the Ohio Senator..23 In the process, revealed

their pre-convention strategy to Dewey. In May, Edward Converse, a Dewey

supporter and president of a small airline in Nevada, reported to Brownell that the

Taft front men "feel that Eisenhower is their chief opponent." The Taftites argued that

Dewey had failed in the last election because he had favored "me-tooism" and had

made a poor choice by installing Brownell as campaign manager. They promised that

Taft would espouse strong conservative views and challenge the legitimacy of the


20 Bernard Kilgore, Letter to John Marshall, 6 August 1951. Copy in Folder (1952 Campaign- Subject
File John Marshall), Box 457, Taft Papers.

21 Human Events 8, no. 3, 17 January 1951.

22 Robert A. Taft, Letter to David Ingalls, 20 January 1951. Copy in Folder (1952 Campaign --
Miscellany David Ingalls (2)), Box 454, Taft Papers.

23 David Ingalls, Letter to Robert A. Taft, 31 January 1951. Copy in Folder (1952 Campaign-
Correspondence 1950-1952), Box 436, Taft Papers.