Evening star., 1948-04-29
Pennsylvania Primary
Seen Showing Stassen
Is Far From 1st Place
Right, Left IncIinotions
Held Less Favorable for
Him Than in Nebraska
BY Dapid laurence

Tim ihon IN Nebraska
By David Laurence
Harold Stassen may win the vice
presidential nomination, but his
showing In Pennsylvania indicates
he Is far away from first place in
the opinion Of the rank and file of
the Republican voters.
What happened in PENNSYLVANIA
was less favorable for him than the
vote IN Nebraska when the totals are
appraised in terms Of left" and
right" inclinations.
Thus, in the PENNSYLVANIA pri-
maries, with 1889 of the States g.
262 precincts reporting, Mr.. Stassen
got 1929 out of a total of 229 .842
Republican votes, or about 33 per
cent. II the choice had been be-
tween Mr.. Stassen and Senator VAN
denberg alone. for instance, in the
pennsylvania primaries, the chances
are the Dewey, Macarthur and Taft
voOes, pfus those cast for Senator
Vandenberg in the write-in primary
would total far more than a
majority.
Internationalists Favored.
On the basis of internationalism
versus isolationism, the prepondeE
ant vote, as reflected in the Pennsyl-
vania primaries, is for the inter-
nationalist side.
On the basis. however, of cleft"
and right" and center" the Stas-
sen vote plus the Wallace and Eisen-
mower vote makes about IS per cent
of the total. If the Dewey and VAN
denoerg votes are put in the center,
this makes total there of 80 per
cent. AS for the right" this totals
81 per cent assuming that Senator
Taft, Gen. Macarthur and Senator
Martin are grouped together in that
category.
Thus, the combination Of the votes
for Senator Taft, Gen. Macarthur,
Senator Martin, Gov. Dewey and
Senator Vandenberg makes a total
OF 65 per cent. leaving the votes of
Mr.. Stassen, Gen. Eisenhower and
Mr.. Wallace to make up the remain
ing IS per cent.
43GS Left" Vote in Nebraska.
In Nebraska, the so-called left"
vote amounted to 43 per cent while
the center" and the right" COM
bined-Senator Taft, Gen. Mac
Arthur, Gov. Warren Of California.
House Speaker Martin. Gov. Dewey
and Senator Vandenberg-made up
the other ST per cent.
There are doubtless more conserv-
atlves in the Republican Party In
pennsylvania than in Nebraska but
the fact remains that in both States
Mr.. Stassen won only a minority of
the votes cast and that his showing
is good because Of the large number
OF other candidates who split the
entire vote.
1t Is easy to be misled by the
headlines on the voting in these
various primaries. A convention is
not an election. The delegates are
usually hand picked. Even the dele
gates selected in a primary are in
many instances not pledged to vote
IN the convention, after the first
ballot, for the nominee who ran
ahead in the primary.
Business Backed WilIkie.
The Republican convention Is
never stampeded by a radical or
left winger." Many observers who
point to the case OF Wendell Willkie
in 1910 forget that his liberalism or
left wing" characteristics did not
manifest themselves in the precon-
yention campaign of 1910.
On the contrary, Mr.. Willkie had
the enthusiastic support of the util-
ity companies of the country and of
many businessmen who believed that
any man who had been president of
a big public utility holding company
would not be unfriendly to business
interests. Indeed, the New Dealers
charged that the 1910 convention
was Influenced by flood of tele-
grams inStigated by utility interests
To say that what happened in 1910
can happen again in 1948 is to as
sumo that Mr. StaSSen is as accept !
able to the business interests of
the country today as Mr.. Willkie was
in 1910.
Not Clear on Labor Act.
AS matter of fact, Mr.. StaSSen
has been losing ground with the
conservatives because he has failed
to make clear his attitude on the
Taft-Hartley law. He has said he
would have voted for it, but he has
criticized it, with indications that,
If elected, he would weaken it. This,
at any rate. is the impression some
OF his recent utterances have given
TO conservatives. Would he appoint
or reappoint present members of
the National Labor Relations Board
who are bent on sabotaging the
Taft Hartley law?
The next President will have i'm
portant appointments to make, and
the conservatives are not likely toI
embrace at Philadelphia the candi-
dacy of any one who leans toward
the left" or who fails to make clear
where he stands on the question of
measures needed to protect the pub
lie against domination by labor
union bosses.
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