$10 Campaign

One evening last week William Edgar Borah stood on the platform in the "million-dollar ballroom" of the Eagles Lodge in Milwaukee with 1.200 Wisconsin voters ranged on chairs before him. From their standpoint the occasion was significant because the Idaho Senator was the one candidate for President who had seen fit to show himself in the flesh in their State. From his standpoint the occasion meant: 1) an expenditure of about $10, the cost of a round-trip ticket from Chicago and a night's lodging at Milwaukee's Republican Hotel; 2) a one-night campaign to capture a State's support; 3) the first thorough and the easiest test in his attempt to win the Republican nomination.

Next morning Wisconsin voters went to the polls to ballot in their Presidential primaries. As simple as the Nazi ticket in Germany was the first choice offered. Those who voted in the Democratic primary were given the choice of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Those who voted in the Republican primary were given the choice of William E. Borah. Alternatives there were none, but that was not a matter of great importance, for this Presidential preference vote was really no more than a popularity rating. The real test was on delegates to the two national conventions. On the Democratic ticket was a complete slate of Roosevelt delegates. Republicans had a choice between a slate of Borah delegates or a slate of uninstructed delegates put up by the regular Republican organization in an attempt to reserve Wisconsin's freedom of action at the Republican convention. Under Wisconsin law any qualified voter can vote at wall in any party's primary. Thus the La Follette Progressives, who have officially detached themselves from the Republican Party, had the choice of voting for Left-winger Borah or for New Dealer Roosevelt.

Apparently most Progressives favored the latter choice, for President Roosevelt polled more than two votes for every one polled by Senator Borah in the preference primary. The Borah vote did not represent the full Republican strength because the regular Republicans opposed to the Senator presumably did not vote at all in this popularity contest. Not well educated in their own primary laws, only 70 voters out of 100 who went to the polls bothered to ballot for delegates, the only thing that counted. In that vote the Roosevelt delegates won easily. The four Borah delegates-at-large won over uninstructed delegates about 5-to-4. Result: Of Wisconsin's 24 delegates Candidate Borah now counts 21 as his.

Encouraged by gathering these first delegates in his collection for Cleveland, Senator Borah returned to Chicago, spent the rest of the week stumping Illinois--in preparation for this week's primary there. Meanwhile Carl Bachmann, his national manager, optimistically entered him in West Virginia's primary (May 12).

But one State does not make a landslide. Of some 300 delegates who up to this week had been picked to go to Cleveland, three-quarters are officially uninstructed. Of the 1,001 delegates who will eventually assemble at the convention it is certain that the great majority, despite private commitments, will not be under official instructions from their party at home. Therefore they should be swung with relative ease in any direction the tide runs strongest.

So far the tide has been running for Governor Landon of Kansas. Dr. George Gallup (The American Institute of Public Opinion) has taken three successive polls which indicate the direction of the tide among the Republican rivals:

December February April

Landon 33% 43 56% Borah 26% 20% Hoover 12% 17% 14% Knox . . 8%

Against this tide a bloodless victory in Wisconsin was no great shakes. Borah men knew last week that they needed thumping successes in Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey and elsewhere if they were to have any chance of dominating the Cleveland convention.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.