New Hampshire Primary

Tiny New Hampshire (pop. 536,000) is normally little more than a speck on the politicians' map of the U.S. It will send numerically unimportant delegations to the national political conventions; 14 to the Republican, eight to the Democratic. But last week politicians and pundits from coast to coast were carefully adjusting their fine tuning to get a good, 21-in. view of what is going on there. On March 11, New Hampshire will have the first presidential preference primary of 1952. It will be the first big test of Eisenhower's voter appeal v. Taft's.*

The Eisenhower forces got an early start. The Republican organization, headed by Governor Sherman Adams, is hard at work for him. Rallies are scheduled featuring Massachusetts' Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, his brother Governor John Davis Lodge of Connecticut, Pennsylvania's Senator James Duff and former ECAdministrator Paul Hoffman.

Originally, Bob Taft did not intend to walk into this buzz saw. But that intention led to the inevitable accusation that he was afraid to stand up against Ike. Last month, Taft Strategist John D. M. Hamilton led a task force to New Hampshire to look things over, and announced "surprising and encouraging results." Taftmen noted with pleasure that March 11 is the annual town-meeting day, on which residents gather at churches, schools and town halls to discuss town business. Their fond hope: that a good percentage of the small-town folks will step over to the polling booths and vote for Taft. They were happy, too, when General Douglas MacArthur withdrew from the primary, with a comment which sounded like a slap at Ike and a plug for Taft. Said the general: "The immediate demand upon the citizens lies in the selection of a national leadership of demonstrated ability in the science of civil government . . ."

The political logic behind Taft's New Hampshire decision: he has much to gain there, and little to lose. If he scores a dramatic upset and runs ahead of Eisenhower, the Ike boom--especially the argument that Ike is a Winner and Taft isn't--will be dealt a critical blow. If he runs close behind Ike, he can claim a moral victory. Taft would be seriously hurt if he ran third, behind Eisenhower and Harold Stassen, who also entered the race last week. The Ohio Senator was willing to gamble on that possibility. "Win, lose or draw," said he, "I ... feel I should permit the preference vote to be taken."

*On other fields, where they thought they were "safe," the Taft forces last week were trying to shake off two small Eisenhower jolts. In a New Orleans primary, Ike's backers won ten of twelve contested seats on the Louisiana Republican Central Committee. The lame-duck committee, led by Taftmen, promptly tried to outlaw the primary on technical grounds, and the fight went to court. In Oklahoma, district conventions began electing the state's 16 delegates to the Republican convention. Five of the first six to be named are Ikemen. Taft Campaign Manager Dave Ingalls rushed into Oklahoma to find out "what happened."

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