Maine: Ike 9, Taft 5

In Maine, the process of picking delegates to the Republican National Convention is usually as traditional as the state's Republicanism; party leaders make a slate, then district and state conventions obediently swallow it whole. In 1952, things didn't go that way. Because of the fierce pulling and tugging between Taft and Ike supporters, the party bigwigs couldn't agree; they had to let the conventions decide. Last week 1,813 business and professional men, farmers and flannel-shirted woodsmen gathered at Bangor to do their unusual duty.

An indication of what was going to happen came when York County Chairman Harold D. Carroll, who had declared himself neutral and had been claimed by Taft men, arrived. He tacked a handsome colored portrait of Ike on his hotel-room door and stuck an Ike pin in his lapel. As the conventions were about to begin, Maine's Senator Margaret Chase

Smith, another neutral, was making a speech before the Orono-Old Town Kiwanis Club eight miles away. Ike, she said, "is on the verge of bandwagon support that may sweep aside all opposition prior to the convening of the national convention in Chicago . . ." Her words quickly reached Bangor,filtered through the meeting rooms, and added force to a trend.

Ike Eisenhower won a clear-cut victory. The count: nine delegates for Ike, five for Taft, and two "neutrals" who lean toward Ike. All the Taft delegates came from the Third Congressional District (northern and northeastern Maine), Senator Owen Brewster's homeland.

A majority of delegates who attended the conventions in Bangor probably are admirers of Robert A. Taft. One who made an impassioned speech for Ike later explained: "I'm a Taft man, but you can't get away from it: we want to win next November more than anything else. I'm not sure that Taft could do it."

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