The Time of Maneuver

On the cold morning after Minnesota's presidential primary, Adlai Stevenson rose early at his farm near Libertyville, Ill., stuffed his shaving kit and a pair of pajamas into his briefcase, hurried downstairs and left a penciled note for a house guest. "Sorry I had no chance to visit with you," he wrote, "but I must go into town and get to work. We've just begun to fight!--Yours, A.E.S."

For Phrasemaker Stevenson, the phrase was trite, but it was true. On that morning last March the political figure of Adlai Stevenson, hit hard in Minnesota by Estes Kefauver, was lying flat on the canvas, and the count was almost up to ten. Many a knowing politician and political reporter thought that Candidate Stevenson might never get up. But he did, and the fight that he began that day turned into a dramatic political comeback. Last week, with a decisive victory in California's Democratic presidential primary, won after a hard fight, Stevenson was once again the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for the presidency.

A Knockout. In crucial California, Stevenson won all the way. Although Kefauver had lured every special group with every special promise he could muster up, Stevenson carried cities and farm country, labor districts and white-collar districts, Negro areas and melting pots. In the expected total of about 1,800,000 Democratic ballots, Stevenson won an unexpected margin of about 450,000 votes.

While he was strongly helped by the support of almost every important organization Democrat in the state (which he also had in Minnesota), Adlai made a stack of political hay on his own by spending more time with the people and less with the phrases, by lightening and brightening his speeches, and by rubbing more elbows. Still sensitive and a little selfconscious, Stevenson was not completely at home in his new campaign methods, and at times he was embarrassed. In Los Angeles' Pershing Square, for example, he approached an old man sitting on a bench and said: "I'm Adlai Stevenson." Growled the bench-sitter: "I know who you are; get the hell out of here." But Stevenson made the new formula work.

A Foe with Friends. Victory in California meant more than the state's 68 delegates for Stevenson. It also meant that he had knocked Kefauver all the way out of the presidential ring, a vital display of political muscle. In the golden afterglow of the Golden State primary, many an uncertain delegate around the U.S. began to lean more and more toward Stevenson. But the big prize was by no means in his hands. The end of the primaries signaled the start of a whole new battle in the struggle for the Democratic nomination, a struggle of political maneuver that would go on right down to the final ballot in Chicago. Already the kingmakers (see box) were at work. In this new phase of the fight, Adlai Stevenson faced one main adversary: New York's Governor Averell Harriman.

Last week, before the convention of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. Hat Workers Union in Manhattan, Harriman (who had been calling himself a not-active candidate) threw an old grey fedora into news cameras and cried: "I want to say to you that this hat is in the ring -- this is a hat you gave me, and no one is going to take it away from me." He made his announcement less than 24 hours after David Dubinsky, boss of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and a vice chairman of New York State's Liberal Party, had told the hatters that Harriman should get out of the race in favor of Stevenson. (Snorted a Harriman supporter in disgust: "After all the patronage they've gotten!") Said Harriman: "I believe in the unity of the Democratic Party--yes--but I believe in the unity of the Democratic Party as a liberal Democratic Party."

National Net. The announcement was carefully timed to keep Harriman unbruised by primary fights, and make the most of his powerful connections. For months Harriman and his handlers, led by Tammany Hall Chief Carmine De Sapio, have been preparing for this phase of the campaign. They have had the welcome support of Old Pro Harry Truman despite his public insistence that he is not supporting any candidate. Truman's link: former Democratic national chairman, Indianapolis Banker Frank McKinney, informal Harriman ambassador to the states generally west of the Alleghenies.

Now, by telephone and travel, McKinney, De Sapio and other Harriman strategists will spread out a national net in an effort to pull in delegates for Harriman. The candidate himself will plunge promptly into open campaigning, is touted to make a big splash at the Governors' Conference in Atlantic City, NJ. late this month. Before the Democratic Convention opens Aug. 13, he will make trips to Iowa, Kansas, Colorado, Minnesota, North Dakota, probably to Michigan, Wisconsin and Washington, and possibly to other states.

Just Like Ike? The Harriman team's strategy is to talk platform as much as they talk candidate. Principal reason: if the Harriman forces can force a strong plank on civil rights at Chicago, they can anger--and possibly drive out--the South, embarrass Stevenson in his position as the peacemaking moderate, and plump hard for a candidate who takes strong stands and can hold the big-city vote in the North, i.e., Averell Harriman. In its long-range thinking, the Harriman team figures that its big platform fight could win for "Honest Ave," much as the 1952 Eisenhower forces clinched the nomination for Ike by winning the opening battle over the contested delegations.

In its new phase, the Democratic contest is essentially a two-man race. Stevenson's solid victory in California practically eliminated another dark horse, Missouri's U.S. Senator Stuart Symington, who might have come forward as the leading "moderate" candidate if Stevenson had faltered. As the delegate-counting season opened, Stevenson clearly had a long lead in delegates pledged, announced or presumed to be for him. The best estimates at week's end of first-ballot strength:

Stevenson ....................376

Harriman .....................141 1/2

Kefauver ......................162

Favorite Sons ...............224

Undecided ....................468 1/2

Needed to Nominate......686 1/2

After the first ballot, balance can be expected to shift considerably; e.g., such uncommitted Southern states as Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi are already Stevenson-warm. Many of Kefauver's votes

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