FOULS IN THE FINAL ROUNDS

Up to the final weeks of the cam paign, Hubert Humphrey and Rich ard Nixon had filled relatively rigid roles. Humphrey, who after the Dem ocratic Convention privately admitted, "I'm dead," sought resurrection by fron tal assault. He inveighed against "Rich ard the Silent," vowed "to put a blow torch to his political tail and run him out into the open." Nixon rarely ventured out of his protective thicket of statesmanlike aloofness, either to discuss the issues or trade invective. As one top Republican strategist said immediately after Miami Beach, "It would suit me if he sits on the front porch all fall while we play that acceptance speech on TV."

Whether because of Humphrey's blowtorch or out of a desire not to appear overconfident in the campaign's final days, Nixon last week abruptly changed tactics. Like Harry Truman in 1948, he whistle-stopped through Ohio and motored across eastern Pennsylvania, giving as much hell as he had earlier absorbed. Humphrey, he said, owns "the fastest, loosest tongue in the nation" and performs "the fastest switch of position ever seen in American politics." In nine Ohio communities, Nixon hit the crime issue harder than ever, talking about the murder, rape and mayhem being committed elsewhere in the land. "Hubert Humphrey," he cried at one stop, "defends the policies under which we have seen crime rising ten times as fast as the population. If you want your President to continue the do-nothing policy toward crime, vote for Humphrey. If you want to fight crime, vote for Nixon. Hubert Humphrey," he declared in Dayton, "sat on his hands and watched the U.S. become a nation where 50% of American women are frightened to walk their city streets at night."

Parity Concept. As campaign oratory goes, it was not an unusual sort of exaggeration. Nor was it exactly surprising that Nixon ignored the Johnson Administration's efforts to help the states fight crime, and the fact that Humphrey recommends additional programs toward that end. Nixon was not overly scrupulous either, when he implied that Supreme Court civil liberties decisions have given "thousands" of known murderers their freedom.

Even in his latest address on net work radio--a medium he had previously used for calm, almost scholarly talks, Nixon did some pre-Halloween scare work. "I charge the opposition with creating a security gap for America," he said. Much in the pattern of John Kennedy's missile-gap talk in 1960 and Barry Goldwater's assertions in 1964 that the U.S. was becoming weak militarily, Nixon accused the Democrats of endangering the nation's lead over the Russians in strategic missiles, nuclear submarines and tactical and long-range aircraft. "This parity concept," Nixon observed gravely, "means superiority for potential enemies. We cannot accept this concept and survive as a free people."

In Washington, Defense Secretary Clark Clifford set out to rebut Nixon. For example, Nixon said that the U.S. had enjoyed a 50% lead over the Soviet Union in intercontinental ballistic missiles in 1960 but was now only marginally ahead. In 1960, the U.S. had all of ten operational long-range missiles, compared with five for the Russians. The U.S. now has 1,054 iCBMs, compared with about 900 for the Russians. In all categories of nuclear weapons, Clifford also pointed out, the U.S. has 4,200 compared with 1,200 for the Russians.

Improvisation. In a sense, Nixon was merely getting even. Humphrey has attempted to equate Nixon with Wallace and make the Republican ticket synonymous with reaction and recession, and was still at it last week. Winning the presidency, he said, is "not worth a compromise with extremism." Again: "You cannot afford to have people in control of your government who believe that a little higher rate of unemployment is good for you." He admonished New York Democrats to "improvise," and for invidious inspiration he observed: "If the British after Dun kirk hadn't improvised, Hitler would have had England. If the Democrats after Chicago don't improvise, Nixon will have Washington." Improvising a bit himself in finding new darts to aim at the Republican nominee, Humphrey told an audience in Fort Worth that U.S. Marines had to be sent "to rescue [Nixon] from Venezuela."*

For Humphrey to continue to campaign in this vein is hardly admirable but at least logical. He has nothing to lose and everything to gain if he can awaken old phobias about Nixon. Whether it is prudent politics for Nixon suddenly to begin emulating his rival's bare-knuckled tactics is another question. The kind of speeches he made last week could serve to revive images of him as a reckless partisan. This can only spur Democrats to fight harder in the campaign's closing days.

Against overpowering evidence, Humphrey himself maintains a visceral conviction that he can still win. "I'm down in the Farm Belt and in the Rocky Mountains," he says. "I know that. But I'm going to win the big states and the big electoral vote, and I'm going to win the election." Jetting from New York to Texas to California last week, seeking to rekindle traditional party loyalty among Jews, Negroes and Spanish-Americans, Humphrey rasped appeals and encouragement to his troops.

He managed to convey the impression, if not establish as fact, that he was indeed making progress. He could still hope for a lucky break--sudden agreement at the Paris peace talks, for instance, or a spicy Republican scandal. In Maryland, reporters from at least half a dozen major publications were delving into Spiro Agnew's financial affairs, looking for evidence to buttress old speculation that Agnew was implicated in conflict-of-interest situations while a Baltimore county official. Nothing new or sensational was turned up by week's end, but the fact that there was any inquiry at all could only hearten the Democrats.

Meanwhile, Humphrey had to rely primarily on himself. In Manhattan's Herald Square and Brooklyn's Albee Square, he worked the crowds well. In Texas, where six weeks earlier none of the top party leaders would appear with him, he enjoyed the simultaneous company of Governor John Connally and Senator Ralph Yarborough, old factional rivals. Lady Bird Johnson, Luci Nugent and little Lyn were also on hand. He got good receptions from crowds of respectable size in seven Texas cities. In California, Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh, who had previously snubbed Humphrey, campaigned with him. Historian Arthur Schlesinger, until now a holdout, formally endorsed the Democratic ticket. Thirty-one prominent Negroes* joined in a public appeal to Eugene McCarthy to give his "active help." Lyndon Johnson scheduled two TV plugs, even ventured out of Washington for a rare round of stumping in West Virginia and Kentucky in Humphrey's behalf. There was speculation that McCarthy would at last endorse Humphrey this week--a trifle late.

Humphrey now insists that he can confound the experts and carry Texas. He believes he can count on New York as well. Last week the New York Daily News' statewide poll showed a pro-Humphrey trend that brought him within 2% of Nixon. The latest nationwide Gal lup poll still gives Nixon a lead of eight points (Nixon 44%; Humphrey 36%; Wallace 15%), but that represents a seven-point drop since late September. And Humphrey people argue that even that figure is misleading. They contend that Humphrey will take some of the biggest states by tiny pluralities, while Nixon takes others by large margins. The Vice President can at least do well enough, so runs the argument, to bring about an electoral-vote deadlock that would put the decision up to the House of Representatives.

George Wallace remains a major factor in determining whether or not the election will be settled next week. One of the most significant items in the latest Gallup poll is a five-point drop for Wallace, giving him his lowest percentage since last spring. Across eleven states in the Midwest, the South and the Northeast, Wallace last week continued the battle to retain his following; the smaller his vote, the less his prospects for keeping his American Independent Party strong enough for another effort in 1972. In New York City's Madison Square Garden, he drew a large and enthusiastic audience of more than 16,000. When told of the Gallup results, he declared: "They lie when they poll. They are trying to rig the election. Eastern money runs everything."

Still a Race. Considering the polls' general volatility this year, and other statistical evidence, some Democrats share Humphrey's feeling that they are still in a race. One recent Louis Harris finding, for instance, showed Humphrey ahead by three points when voters were asked which candidate was more a "man of integrity." In September, Nixon led in this category by seven points.

These may be frail harbingers, but Humphrey's aides have no other choice than to squeeze all possible solace from them. Both Humphrey and Nixon realize that 1968's loser is not likely to get another chance at the presidency. Both have spent their political careers fighting for the job. It was almost inevitable, if regrettable, that in the closing hours of the campaign, the fighting should have deteriorated to the knee-in-the-groin tradition.

*A reference to the fact that when hostile mobs turned Nixon's 1958 good-will visit to Caracas into a near lynching, four companies of U.S. Marines and paratroopers were alerted for possible use. They were not needed. *Including Sammy Davis Jr., Aretha Franklin, Martin Luther King Sr., Jackie Robinson, Richard Hatcher, Carl Stokes and Bayard Rustin.

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