Trouble for Tom

To Governor Tom Dewey, who likes things tidy, the reports coming in to the executive mansion at Albany were disturbing. Hustling Harold Stassen, who had been more places than Kilroy, was chopping into Dewey's strength in states he had checked off as sure things.

In Oregon, Deweymen assessed the damage done by Stassen's four-day visit, began wondering whether their man should not come out for a speech before the May 21 primary. In Wisconsin, which Dewey had confidently neglected, Stassen had suddenly forged ahead, was now conceded to hold the lead. Belatedly, Dewey strategists noticed that their slate in the April 6 primary lacked outstanding names. Secretary of State Fred Zimmerman, the state's most potent vote-getter, who had helped Dewey defeat Willkie in the 1944 primary, had deserted to head the Mac-Arthur forces. Sparked by Senator Joe McCarthy, the Stassenmen had put on a razzle-dazzle campaign, now claimed most of the state organization. Hastily, Dewey dispatched three trusted lieutenants to set up headquarters in Milwaukee, retrieve what they could.

The news from New Hampshire was equally jarring. Stassen had toured the state a month ago, had made a good impression on the state's farmers. At that time, a Dewey emissary had confidently predicted that Stassen would be lucky to get one of the state's eight delegates in next week's primary--the nation's first. Now he admitted that he would be satisfied if Dewey got four out of eight.

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