Part 2

The year 1953 marked the end of Frank Hughes' close working relationship with McCormick. At the publisher's direction, Hughes was made a general assignment reporter in March, though he remained in his office on the 25th floor of the Tribune Tower. The last stories he wrote which were directly related to Colonel McCormick's special interests concerned the third party movement of 1952 -[\- a movement to bring together the conservative and anti-internationalist factions of both major parties and supported for the most part by members of the Taft wing of the Republican party.

The more than 2,000 letters in this collection received in response to McCormick's August 23, 1952 radio address advocating the formation of such a party, along with Hughes' stories and his 1953 survey of 100 of the 1952 letters, furnish invaluable primary source material for researchers interested in this period of political history. The stories remained unpublished, however, and in December 1953 Hughes moved to the city desk doing rewrite work and general assignments.