National Affairs: The Absent Treatment

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Blitzing New Jersey, New Hampshire and New York last week in an assault on G.O.P. Eastern strongholds, Estes Kefauver ignored noisy Eisenhower enthusiasts among his street-corner crowds and an Oklahoma-born cold that reduced his drawling dramatics to a-hoarse whisper. But the vice-presidential nominee and aides were hard put to ignore what they considered a pointed dig: the absence of New York Democratic bigwigs from the Syracuse-Rochester-Buffalo area when Kefauver made a one-day stand in upper New York state.

While Estes blasted Richard Nixon and Republican corruption, Campaign Assistant J. Howard McGrath sniped at National Committeeman Carmine De Sapio (who led the anti-Stevenson-Kefauver forces on Harriman's behalf at the Chica go convention): "He must have a vested interest in seeing this ticket defeated." But after Kefauver received telegrams of welcome from De Sapio and Governor Harriman, McGrath cooled down, accepted the explanation of local leaders: they were busy 24 hours a day getting voters registered for the election, could not spare time even to accompany their candidate. Said McGrath: "Merely a tempest in a teapot. Forget all about it."