Who?

Harry Truman's announcement threw the Democratic Party into a kind of confusion it has not known for 20 years. Not since Franklin Roosevelt was nominated at Chicago in 1932 have Democrats faced an open convention.

Receptive? While Truman said nothing publicly about a successor, many believed his choice was Illinois' Governor Adlai Stevenson. There was no doubt that most Fair Deal officeholders looked on him as the heir presumptive. Stevenson still insisted that he is running only for re-election in Illinois, but he immediately began talking like a man establishing his availability for a draft. In a television interview, he was asked whether he would say that he will not accept the nomination. His reply: "I will not say that . . .

That's a bridge that I can't cross until I come to it . . ."

He answered like a candidate on some other subjects. Taxes: "It certainly seems to me they're too high for our prolonged economic stability . . . [But] the tax burden ... is due largely to the national defense effort . . ." Taft-Hartley law: "There are . . . more than a hundred provisions, I think--sections, subsections . . . I couldn't answer am I for or against it ... I think the law needs revision . . ." Compulsory FEPC: "I would hope very much that the problem of civil rights could be administered by the states . . . If it's impossible for the states to do this job and do it properly, then I would say the Federal Government must . . ."

When reporters on the television program asked about his deposition in the first Alger Hiss trial, Stevenson replied that he was asked what Hiss's reputation was for loyalty, integrity and honesty, and had deposed that so far as he knew, Hiss's reputation was good. Of Hiss's conviction, he said: "I believe explicitly that a jury of one's peers must find the right answer or else we can have no faith in our judicial system."

At a reception given by Democratic National Chairman Frank McKinney, Stevenson renewed an acquaintance with a man who has left no doubt about his own candidacy. Talking to a reporter, Georgia's Senator Richard Russell asked: "Isn't that Governor Stevenson? I think I met him some years ago, but the boll weevils have got his hair, like mine." A hot tip floated through the room: "Put your money on Stevenson and Russell."

Momentarily, Harry Truman's announcement mended one breach in the Democratic Party. The Southern Democrats' revolt was against Truman, and now the target was gone. But there was no assurance that the wound was healed permanently.

Change of Coat. Another prospect, Oklahoma's booming Bob Kerr, quickly wrenched out of his "I'll-run-if-Harry-doesn't" coat and announced that he is now a full-blown candidate.

Vice President Alben Barkley, who will be 75 in November, was thinking about announcing that he is a candidate. House Speaker Sam Rayburn's name was mentioned (he said he isn't a candidate). Farther afield, other names popped up: James A. Farley, Averell Harriman, Connecticut's Brien McMahon. Michigan's Governor Mennen ("Soapy") Williams said wistfully: "Some of my friends think that some day --I'm going to make it--why not now?"

But the man in front of them all last week was the man in the coonskin cap. Tennessee's Senator Estes Kefauver, the only prospect who had dared to go after the nomination before Truman stepped out, had demonstrated his popularity at the polls and already had a considerable group of delegates. Now, any other candidate, with or without Harry Truman's endorsement, faced the problem of catching up with Kefauver.

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