Scourge of the Rascals

In his 39 years of campaigning, hymn-singing, Bible-quoting Charles William Tobey had won more public offices--including the governorship and a seat in the U.S. Senate--than anyone in New Hampshire; he had never been beaten. Last week for the first time, aging (70) Senator Tobey was running hard. He was up against a hard-swinging, 35-year-old war veteran named S. Wesley Powell.

Wes Powell, an aerial gunner who was wounded seriously by German flak in World War II, came back home to serve as $10,000-a-year aide to New Hampshire's senior Senator, Styles Bridges, who is no friend of Tobey's. Last November, Republican Powell announced he was out to beat Tobey. He set up campaign headquarters in the pantry of his Hampton Falls home. He had the encouragement and the help of Styles Bridges' compact New Hampshire political organization.

In New Hampshire's picture-book mountain towns, farm communities, saltwater villages and the mill and pulp towns, Wes Powell gave free chicken dinners, systematically lambasted Tobey as "A Truman Republican" and "a darling of the C.I.O." "I am proud to be a conservative," said Powell.

By last week, goodhearted, excitable Charles Tobey, one of the Senate's most florid orators and unpredictable Republican mavericks, had become almost a stranger to the Senate chamber. He had spent a good part of the summer traveling up & down New Hampshire, spouting Latin quotations, leaning on the Good Book, explaining and apologizing to people who had been voting for him for decades. Apparently he had come to regard his independent-liberal reputation as something of a campaign liability. Sure he had fought for labor's rights, said Tobey, but Herbert Hoover was "my dear friend." Furthermore, Wisconsin's Joe McCarthy wasn't really so bad--it was just his methods. As for some of his liberal votes, Tobey had still not deserted his old role as a scourge of the New Dealers.

"No man in the United States Senate today," he cried indignantly, "has fought the Truman crowd more than Charles W. Tobey . . . Down in Washington they have the damnedest, or damnable, crew of rascals." Next week, after Primary Day, Charles Tobey would learn whether the voters still wanted him to mingle again with all the damnable rascals.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.