Hustling Harold

Candidate Harold Stassen made a clean break with Candidate Robert Taft. All last week Stassen trumpeted his new theme as he zigzagged across the top of New England, conferring with New Hampshire political leaders, downing a stack of pancakes covered with Vermont maple syrup, posing in front of a statue of Ethan Allen in Montpelier, addressing an audience of Bowdoin College students in Maine.

At every stop, husky, hustling Harold Stassen proclaimed his divergence from Bob Taft and from "those in my party who do not like to think in terms of world responsibility." He was loud in his praise for Arthur Vandenberg, "a great American statesman, in recent years." Said Stassen: "I find I am more in accord with Vandenberg on both foreign and domestic issues than I am with any other Republican leader."

Washington politicos began to ask: "What is Harold up to?" They got a partial answer. Stories began to leak out of Washington of a midnight meeting between Stassen and Taft. Before Stassen had made up his mind to enter the Ohio primary, Taft had paid a call at Stassen's Hotel Statler suite. Taft had warned Stassen not to enter the primary, warned that it would wreck party unity and Stassen's own political future. Stassen's answer was equally blunt: if he was going to get anywhere he had to show that he could confront a man as strong as Taft.

With the story out, Stassen hurriedly called in newsmen to give his own account of the meeting. Stassen agreed that Taft had asked for a conference as soon as he found that Stassenmen were canvassing the Ohio area. He also agreed that Taft had urged him to stay out. But he denied that Taft had threatened him.

Whatever the exact course of the conversation, it was clear that Stassen had singled out Bob Taft as the man to campaign against and he was bulling ahead at full speed. He seemed fully aware of the risks of his new course. In Ohio, Taftmen had promptly set to raiding the slates of Stassen delegates, pressured others to stay out of the primary, confidently talked of capturing all of Ohio's 53 votes for Taft. But Stassen supporters figured that he was sure to pick up at least ten, enough to put a big crimp in Bob Taft's prestige.

Reading the national Scoreboard, Stassen was even cockier. When he first arrived in Montpelier last week, he was "reasonably sure" of 200 first-ballot delegates. By the time he left Portland, five days later, he thought he could count on 230 (against Dewey's estimated 350 and Taft's 200 to 250), including 17 of New England's 30 votes. Said Stassen confidently: "I would not change places with any other candidate at the moment." Who did he think was the man to beat? Replied Stassen with a grin: "Mr. Truman."

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