Cherry Turnover

In Arkansas' Democratic primary last month, first-term Governor Francis Cherry ran 45,000 votes ahead of his nearest opponent, Orval E. Faubus, but two other candidates received enough votes to force Cherry into a runoff. In the overtime period, the game got rough.

Faubus, onetime highway director for ex-Governor Sid McMath, was accused of attending Commonwealth College in the Ouachita Mountains. Commonwealth, which folded in 1940, was later branded a Communist-line school by the U.S. Department of Justice. Faubus admitted he had hitchhiked to the school from his Ozark home in 1935 to accept a proffered scholarship, spotted the Red danger signals after a few weeks, and hiked right back home. Cherry refused to let the matter drop, suggested Faubus was lying. Faubus fought back with a charge that Cherry was the tool of special business interests; he chortled happily when the Arkansas Power & Light Co. raised electric rates at election time.

The candidates carried their race right to the finish line last week by appearing together on an election-eve television show, where they called for a large turnout of voters* and then resumed their quarrel over Commonwealth College. Next day the voters settled the argument. Faubus won by 6,600 votes, and Cherry became the second governor in Arkansas' history to be denied a second term.

* The appeal got an enthusiastic response in Faubus' home county, Madison, where 108% of the eligible voters cast ballots.

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