The Pot Boils

P: Fifty-one members of the National Press Club in Washington were polled on the question: Who will win? Result: Dewey, 50; Truman, 1. The man who cast the dissenting vote: Harry Truman, who, as President, is a lifetime member of the club.

P: The Chicago Tribune, sadly contemplating the Dewey program, found that it contained "some of the worst features of the New Deal" (the bipartisan foreign policy, farm-support prices, reclamation and public power projects). But the Trib swallowed hard, bit its tongue and announced: "We are for him because, borrowing one of Westbrook Pegler's better phrases, we consider him the least worse of the candidates."

P: Southern politicos were at sixes & sevens. Alabama's Governor Jim Folsom and Georgia's Acting Governor Melvin Thompson urged support of Harry Truman despite the civil-rights program. Memphis' Boss Crump, still fence-sitting a fortnight ago, climbed down on the Dixiecrat side, causing a split with his ancient stooge, Senator Kenneth McKellar, who issued a faint cry of defiance and came out for Truman.

P: The LIFE-like Negro magazine, Ebony, printed the pictures of all four candidates, urged its 2,000,000 readers to vote for anyone except Thurmond. "Negro voters . . . are intelligent enough," said Ebony,"to make up their minds on the issues of the election without special racial appeals."

P: Columnist Harold Ickes finally announced that he would support Harry Truman. Said the terrible-tempered Mr. Ickes, who resigned as Secretary of the Interior and broke with the President in 1946: "As between Thomas Elusive Dewey, the candidate in sneakers, I prefer to support Mr. Truman, who is straightforward and sincere, if at times more unpredictable than I would wish."

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