Balance of Power

No matter how Oregon went, the returns would not cut much ice at the Philadelphia convention.

Ohio was the best proof of that. Though both Harold Stassen and Robert Taft immediately ran out their victory flags, the result of last week's Ohio primary was a flat standoff. Stassen had picked up only nine of 23 contested delegates--three fewer than he had said he would. Despite Taft's confident prediction that he would lose but one delegate, he had lost nine in his own home state.

Wrote New York Timesman James Reston: "One more 'victory' like this one would be the undoing of both candidates."

The Stassen bandwagon had not been brought to a bumping stop, but it had at least been slowed down. Taft's showing was enough to keep him from being knocked out of the running entirely, but it was not good enough to shoot him into the lead. And the best that Tom Dewey could hope to do in Oregon was to recover some of the popular support he had lost after Wisconsin and Nebraska. Actually the primaries had decided nothing: Dewey was still the probable leader on the first ballot, followed by Stassen and Taft.

By last week 770 out of 1,094 convention delegates had been picked (number of votes necessary for nomination: 548). Nearly half of the delegates were either 1) undecided, 2) pledged to favorite sons, or 3) silent. Those who were committed or unofficially pledged made the first ballot score read: Dewey, 202; Stassen, 143; Taft, 108. Those who were open to persuasion were talking more & more about Senator Arthur Vandenberg.

Thus the balance of power rested with the uncommitted and favorite-son delegates--and they would not make their final choice until the balloting had begun.

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