Evening star., 1960-07-14

full Of the Governors ultimate
disposition of the 81 conven-
ton votes, wanted them COM
mitted to him.
Disable Gives In
What happened was this:
Mr.. Miller, Senator Kennedy's
friend, made it plain to the
Governor that unless he CO.
operated, Mr.. Miller would file
a slate of delegates pledged to
Senator Kennedy against the
Governors favorite-son slate IN
the primary. The prospect of
having his factional opponent
use the Senator's popularity to
deal him a possibly decisive
defeat was one Gov. Disable
could not face. On January S
of this year he capitulated and
announced his support Of Sem
ator Kennedy.
The development was partic-
ularly fortuitious for the Ken
nedy campaign. The Senator
had declared himself a formal
candidate three days before,
but, in fact, his campaign had
been stalled for six weeks while
a violent controversy flared
over the issue of using Amer
ican funds for birth control
programs in foreign countries.
The issue was raised originally
in a statement by the Catholic
bishops Of America, and it
provoked a wide-ranging dis
cussion Of the relationship be-
tween Catholic doctrine and
public policy.
At a New York meeting of
many of the top party leaders
in December. the strongly held
judgment was that this flareup
of the So-called Catholic issue"
had killed the Kennedy cause
before it was formally launched.
Pressure Increased
Gov. DiSalle's announcement
showed that belief to be wrong.
1t showed that the years of
intensive effort that Senator
Kennedy had poured into his
buildup for the race had paid
off in at least one big State.
1t increased the pressure on
other State leaders-many of
them, like Gov. Disable, Cath
olics-to support the Kennedy
cause. And it furnished the
momentum for his foray into
seven State primaries.
Senator Kennedy's sweep of
the presidential primaries is
the most familiar part Of his
progress toward the nomina-
ton. The primary route was
the obvious one for a man
whose popularity with ordinary
voters was never in doubt. But
in winning the New Hamp-
shire, Wisconsin, Indiana,
Nebraska, West Virginia, Mary
land and Oregon races, Sena-
tor Kennedy did far more than
garner the delegates of those
States.
He demonstrated in his Wis
consin and West Virginia vic
tories over Senator Humphrey
that he was stand-up cam
paigner of no mean ability
Senator Humphrey had his
weaknesses, which Senator
Kennedy exploited with skill,
but the watchful observers of
these struggles noted chiefly
the fact that Senator Kennedy
had met his rival on battle
fields chosen by the latter u
and defeated him decisively.
Religion Issue
In West Virginia, Senator
Kennedy struck another-and
probably. decisive blow-at the
belief that his religion was a
fatal handicap.
Some of his critics have
charged that Senator Ken
nedy'S publicists exaggerated
the extent of anti Catholic
sentiment in the State in order
to magnify the significance of
his victory there.
Probably no one can tell how
much of a factor the religious
issue" was in the vote. or who
was benefited by it. But there
is no doubt that Senator Ken
nedy's victory, in a State where
less than 5 per cent of the
voters shared his religion, ef-
fectively dampened talk on
that subject - talk that could
do nothing but harm his cam
paign.
In New York two nights after
his West Virginia triumph.