Key Man, Keystone State

In political dopesters' books, Pennsylvania is the key state in the 1946 elections. Key Man of G.O.P. hopes in Pennsylvania is Governor Edward Martin, who is out to oust Democratic Boss Joe Guffey from his U.S. Senate seat. G.O.P. chances, already high thanks to Martin's popularity, were enhanced last week by the party's choice for the Governorship race: able Attorney General James H. Duff.

Joe Guffey, who had twice ridden into the Senate on Franklin Roosevelt's vote appeal, now hoped that the state ticket would help carry him through. For a candidate for Governor, the Democrats settled on John Stanley Rice, former Air Forces colonel, a mild, well-to-do Gettysburg apple grower whose political star had never risen higher than the state Senate. For Secretary of Internal Affairs they found Colonel Rice a G.I. running mate: Philadelphia's blind hero Al Schmid, former Marine sergeant.

Ex-General Martin (World War I regimental commander in the 28th Division) lost no time getting his campaign rolling. In Pittsburgh to address an anniversary party for the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co., he found pickets blocking his entrance to a hotel. Governor and pickets chatted (see cut). Said he: "I believe in collective bargaining, and I believe in such peaceful picketing." The strikers let him pass. No feelings were hurt.

Inside the hotel, a businessman audience applauded Martin's whack at Commerce Secretary Henry Wallace's philosophies. Said the tall, 64-year-old Governor: "When a politician promises he can make a law that will create 60,000,000 jobs, he is guilty of a cruel and heartless falsehood. . . . You cannot pass a law that will bring about production. . . . Only enterprise can create employment. . . . Free enterprise is the property of no political party."

Forthright Ed Martin was a good bet to be the Democrats' biggest political headache of 1946.

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