The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1952-07-05
Presidential
Race
BY JACK BELL

CHICAGO R-Sen. Robert "A.
Tafts Texas-borne surge toward
the Republican presidential nomi-
nation faced a blistering challenge
today from supporters of Gen.
Dwight d. Eisenhower.
J. Russell Sprague, New York
national committeeman and an Eli
senhower hacker, predicted in an
interview the general will win by
a 50-vote margin convention test
on the question of barring disputed
delegates from voting on the seat
ing of contested groups.
For Taft, any such result would
represent the first major setback
in week of pre-convention activi-
ties which has seen him-backed
by Gen. Douglas Macarthur and
supported indirectly by former
President Herbert Hoover-sweep
to within "a votes of the needed
nomination total in the Associated
Press tabulation.
This scoreboard includes con-
tested delegates awarded to Taft
by the Republican National Com
mittee. Since the committees de-
cisions are being appealed, only
the events of next week can de-
termine juse how high Taft's total
will be.
As of now, the count showed:
Taft $50, Eisenhower 427, other
candidates 1871, still uncommitted
11s. To win, candidate must have
604 votes.
The Ohioan increased his lead
Friday when the Republican Ma
tional Committee voted go to al
TO accept the Senator'S personally
devised compromise of the explo-
sive dispute over 80 Texas dele
gates.
Despite repeated cries by Eisen-
hower's supporters that steal"
had been engineered In the Lone
Star State, the committee voted
O give Taft q Of the delegates
and assign 10 of them to Eisen-
hover.
This was exacly what Taft had
proposed earlier in the day and
what Sen. Henry Cabot Lodgeof
Massa chusetts, national campaign
mana ger for Eisenhower, had re-
jected as a compromise with
fraud"
Lodge, Sprague and other Eisen-
hover leaders made ii clear quick
" that they had only begun TO
fight They said they will carry
their high voltage protests to the
Credentials Committee and to the
convention floor itself.
This indicaed ii might be sever.
al DAYS before the delegates would
get around TO voting on nominee,
with television cameras looking at
the cast kept off the screens in
Fridays committee meeting.
The first big test in the conven-
ton battling will come on Lodges
proposal to bar any contested dele
gate from voting on any contest
over a convention seat.
Sprague said the Eisenhower
hackers concede in advance they
can't prevent the delegates seated
temporarily by the National Com
mittee from voting on this Lodge
proposal.
All told the National Committee
has handed down decisions IN IS
contests--and the bulk of the win
ners are for Taft. But Sprague
said that even so the Ledge motion
would carry by so votes,
This would put the Eisenhower
forces in q much better position
when the question OF seating the
contested delegates came up, first
In tie conventions Credentials
Committee and then in the con
venuon itself.
Under Lodges rules change,
Credentials Committee members
from states where there arc con.
tests could not vote. Sptague said
this. in effect, would change the
complexion of the committee, Civ.
ing Eisenhower q one-sote margin
In It,
David s. ingalls,. Tafts national
campaign manager, has said the
Ohioan's hackers don't want any
delegate TO vote ON his own seat.
Ing. But they contend the con
tested delegations can vote on the