National Affairs: Who's for Whom

On his farm at Myrtle Point. Ore. last week, 85-year-old Theodore Milton ("Tex") Stover got to reminiscing about one of his nephews, a youngster named Dwight Eisenhower, whom he last saw when Ike was nine. "That boy kinda worried his mother," said Uncle Tex. "We used to talk about that boy—thought he might become a criminal ... he was such a fun-loving youngster. He used to saw the backs off the kitchen chairs, but we could never see him do it." Stover said he was proud of the boy today, but still planned to vote as he always had—for the Democratic candidate. "Dwight's got too many headaches now," he explained. "Besides, times aren't ripe for a change."

Other new announced preferences:

¶ Southerner Dick Russell picked up an ally in the West, Colorado's veteran Senator Ed Johnson, who agreed to manage the Russell'campaign. "We've been trying to get Europe to forget prejudices and unite," Johnson said. "If unity on that side of the Atlantic is good, it should be good on this side."

¶ Ex-Major General William J. ("Wild Bill") Donovan, wartime boss of the cloak & dagger Office of Strategic Services, now a Manhattan attorney, plunked for Eisenhower.

¶ After months of silence, ex-Senator Joseph R. Grundy, still a potent force in Pennsylvania politics despite his 89 years, surprised nobody by joining the Taft camp. That raised a new flurry of speculation over the intentions of Grundy's friend, Governor John S. Fine, who controls 32 uncommitted delegates to the Republican Convention, but Fine stayed mum.