The Famine

The two big noes--Harry Truman's and Adlai Stevenson's--still echoed through Democratic ranks last week as the party faithful gathered at the Waldorf for the great New York clambake. The affair was officially billed as a $100-a-plate testimonial dinner honoring Mutual Security Administrator W. Averell Harriman and launching him as a presidential candidate. It was also a prime Democratic livestock show, with all the prize specimens on display. But one measure of the Democrats' dazed condition was the fact that the blue ribbon went to Stevenson, who had just strolled out of the pasture.

A smiling Adlai Stevenson got the biggest ovation of any speaker, and promptly touched on the party's unhappy state. "I think I have the answer to all of our perplexities here tonight," he said, and read from a letter he had received that afternoon: "Honorable Governor Stevenson . . . You should marry Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt and you should run for the presidential nomination and put Mrs. Roosevelt on the ticket for Vice President and you will go over big." Said Stevenson: "Now I propose to send this message to Mrs. Roosevelt with the respectful comment that I think it an excellent idea, but after all, this is leap year."

Who, Not What. In more serious vein, Stevenson had another point to make: "Perhaps it isn't exactly the thing to say to a partisan meeting, but who wins this fall is less important than what wins--what ideas, what concept of the world of tomorrow, what quality of perception, leadership and courage."

But at the moment, the Democrats' question was not so much what, but who. With neither Truman nor Stevenson left in the race, the party suddenly found itself in a quandary it has not known for 20 years. It was a wide-open fight, with no orders from the White House--and with Estes Kefauver, the man the Truman Democrats most emphatically do not want to succeed, running out in front of the field.

No Blazes. The new candidate who was bowing into the field hardly seemed the man to resolve the dilemma. Harry Truman sent a message praising Averell Harriman's "talents as a statesman, as an administrator, and as a great liberal deeply devoted to the fundamental purposes of the Democratic Party and to the welfare of the American people." Harriman, the pleasantly haggard millionaire who has been a New-Fair Dealer since he became an NRA administrator in 1934, stepped forward to do his best. He spoke in loud, firm tones: "Foreign and domestic policies are indivisible ... If the voices of hesitation prevail, we would destroy what we have built and we would be on the road to World War III ... The Republicans never change, they voted against everything that has made this country strong in the last 20 years." But as Candidate Harriman sat down to polite applause, no blazes of political fervor sparked to life.

For loyal Democrats, the big dinner was a sad and dreary performance. Oklahoma's Senator Bob Kerr was plainly running against Herbert Hoover, Connecticut's Senator Brien McMahon against Joe Stalin and Vice President Alben Barkley against time and old age. Only Front-Runner Kefauver, running hard against sin, was able to give the New Yorkers a firsthand demonstration of how he has been piling up big votes in primaries (New Jersey: 161,000 votes, with no opposition). While the others were eating the Keef slipped away from the daffodil-strewn speakers' table to shake hands and to autograph programs, match covers and calling cards all around the hall.

Missing Face. If the Democrats needed any further reminder of their plight, they had to look no farther than the speakers' dais. An important face was missing. Georgia's Senator Richard Russell, the Southern Democrats' candidate, had been invited. But he had turned down all invitations for that night, saying that he was too busy in Washington.

Russell's absence loomed large. The day before, a key section of the Solid South had shown that, even with Harry Truman out, it is still ready to revolt on the civil rights issue. South Carolina's Democratic convention pledged its delegates to Russell, and served notice that the state's Democrats would not support the party's regular nominee unless they liked both candidate and platform. Said South Carolina's Governor James F. Byrnes: "My hope is that we can find it possible to affiliate with the Democratic Party. That is the political house of our fathers. We want to return to that house. But we ought to make it crystal clear that we will not return if we are going to be treated as stepchildren." Next day, the Louisiana state convention also served notice of readiness to revolt.

As the Democrats unhappily left the ruins of the filet mignon and the empty Scotch bottles, more & more names of favorite sons and prospective candidates popped hopefully into view. But after the big feast of New York, with the convention only three months away, the party was still famished--for a candidate.

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