National Affairs: Who's for Whom

After Douglas MacArthur began to talk politics last summer, there were indications that he favored Robert A. Taft for President. MacArthur steadfastly kept his name out of primaries, talked like a Taft man, but made no announcement. When he refused to enter the New Hampshire primary, a slate of delegates filed as MacArthur men, insisted he was available as a candidate, and made plans to broadcast, on primary eve, recordings of his famous address to Congress.

That was too much for former State Senator J. Wesley Colburn of Nashua, who had withdrawn as chairman of the state's MacArthur-for-President movement at the general's request. To get things straight, he wrote MacArthur a letter: Should the general's admirers support the MacArthur-pledged slate, or someone else? The old soldier penned a note at the bottom of the letter, mailed it back to Colburn. In the note was the long-expected "announcement": "I thank you for your note. Under the circumstances I suggest you support Taft. D. MacA."

Other indorsements of the week:

¶ North Dakota's Senator Milton R. Young, a member of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, shocked his colleagues by announcing that he is for Georgia's Senator Richard Russell, the Southern Democrats' candidate. Said Young: "I am an ardent Republican and I want to see them win. But to do so they will have to pay more attention to the problem of the farmers than they did four years ago."

¶ New Jersey's Governor Alfred E. Driscoll let it be known that he is for Eisenhower.

¶ Old (77) Dan Tobin, president of the International Teamsters' Union (A.F.L.), said: "If Truman is not a candidate—and I think he will be—then I want Kefauver."