Dear Dick: The following is for your personal and confidential information, and I request that it be seen by no other individual except, of course, your own private secretary.
I rather think that your appearance at the closed circuit dinner on September 29th may mark the beginning of an upsurge in general enthusiasm for our national ticket. I thought, and I know many others who felt the same, that you rang the bell.1
Over past weeks there have come to me directly and indirectly expressions of hope that our campaign might produce more "zip" and that it should be more hardhitting--not necessarily in terms of personal attack but in urgent support of our own plans, programs and candidates.
There is one situation in Illinois that bothers me very much. While I was in Chicago I heard repeated criticisms of Governor Stratton and the expression of a lot of unhappiness among Republican leaders concerning him.2 Such comments would usually end up with the statement "Nixon will carry the State, but the Governor is down the drain."
On this I should like to make two observations. As we all know, the presence on any slate of a candidate who is very weak will invariably damage, to some extent, the whole ticket. Consequently we must try to find ways of giving him a boost.
Second, the criticisms of Governor Stratton--whom I have always considered my good personal friend--were invariably accompanied by the comment, "He has been a very good, even outstanding, Governor, but he has offended all Republican leaders in the State." This has been because of sins of omission and of commission, according to my informants.
The sin of omission is that of failing to consult Republican leaders on matters of projected programs and plans. According to reports the Governor runs a one-man show and is very secretive. Moreover, he acts like a little Napoleon. This infuriates some of the leaders, whose personal support is therefore lukewarm or entirely lacking.
In one instance the publisher of a series of country newspapers said that he intended, as always, to support the Republican ticket, except that, in this instance, he was going to support the Democratic candidate for Governor.3 This, I told him, would not fail to weaken the whole ticket, and I therefore hoped he could find some way to change his mind.
My own feeling about this situation is that it should be easy to correct, particularly because of the Governor’s reputation for efficiency. I should think that if the Governor would merely arrange to meet for an hour or even a half hour weekly with some of the principal leaders to discuss with them his ideas and programs, that much of this difficulty would be cleared up.
Our Senatorial candidate seems to be a very smart man, and I gave him this report in part, with the expressed hope that he might find some way of making the above-mentioned point with the Governor, in such a way as not to offend the latter.4
The sin of commission to which I refer--again merely repeating comments made to me--was the appointment of Jim Kemper as the National Committeeman against the objections of such Republican stalwarts as Ed Ryerson and Doug Stuart.5 There is no use here of repeating the tenor of their complaints about this particular individual. Moreover, I don’t see how anything of a corrective nature could be undertaken at this time.
Nevertheless, I am sure that the whole affair could be measurably improved if the Governor could find some way of making friendly overtures to the disgruntled individuals, and particularly of taking them into his confidence.
My thought is that in your position as our Presidential nominee, and without disclosing the source of your information, you might be able to have a heart to heart talk with Stratton. Possibly Morton could be able to do something along a similar line, if you should so suggest.6 The matter is so delicate and must be kept so secret that I shall speak to no one except you concerning it.7
With all the best, As ever
