Word from the Midwest

Bob Taft's campaign got back on the rails in last week's primaries.

One victory came in Wisconsin, where the Ohio Senator had staged one of his fighting tours, traveling 2,387 miles, visiting 58 counties, making 125 speeches to 150,000 people. The campaign paid off. Wisconsin Republicans gave him 314,224 votes to 260,704 for California's Governor Earl Warren and 169,026 for Harold Stassen. Hard-working Bob Taft swept the rural districts, the villages and the small towns, carried seven of the state's ten congressional districts, picked up 24 delegates to the Republican National Convention. The three districts and six delegates he lost to Earl Warren were in and around two cities--Milwaukee and Madison.

Important Round. Taft's opponents were quick to point out that 1) he wasn't up against his real opposition, Ike Eisenhower, in Wisconsin, and 2) he didn't get a majority of the votes cast. But he outdistanced a campaigning Warren and a campaigning Stassen, whose forces tried to woo Eisenhower votes. It was an important political round for Taft to win.

His other victory, in Nebraska, where he did not campaign, was more impressive. After the great Eisenhower write-in vote in Minnesota, Taft and his organization decided they would try some of that. Nine days before the primary, Taft Strategist

Victor Johnston moved into Nebraska to set things up. He called Congressman Howard Buffett home to Omaha to help run the show. Johnston-Buffett & Co. made 75,000 telephone calls for Taft, mailed 60,000 pieces of literature, showing how to write in his name. Buffett appealed to the considerable isolationist sentiment in Nebraska. Said he: "Eisenhower ... is the candidate of those who would have American boys die as conscript cannon-fodder thousands of miles across the ocean."

"Gee, That's Great." Local Eisenhower supporters, without the help of the national organization, campaigned for write-ins, too. The result: a clear-cut Taft victory. He got 76,556 write-in votes to 61,592 for Ike. Stassen, whose name was printed on the ballot, trailed with 53,444. Nebraska's 18 delegates were not necessarily bound to follow the preference vote, but the best estimate was that 16 would vote for Taft, one for Ike, with one uncommitted. Said Taft, when he got the news from Nebraska: "Gee, that's great."

Bob Taft's big day in the Midwest showed that his strength goes deeper than the professional politicians, that he. has a strong appeal to a large segment of the G.O.P. rank & file. It left no doubt that Taft is still in the race and running hard.

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