The Nation: A Bitter Three Weeks Ahead

For Hubert Humphrey, who has been looking and sounding more like a candidate every day, it was just like the good old times. Before him, in the grand ballroom of Pittsburgh's Hilton Hotel, nearly 2,000 delegates to the annual Pennsylvania AFL-CIO convention exuberantly chanted: "We want Humphrey! We want Humphrey!" Four times during his speech he brought the crowd to its feet to cheer and applaud. The din even briefly drowned out his spirited attack on both the Ford Administration and on Democratic presidential candidates who have tried to make Washington an election issue. Said he: "The issue is not Washington, not Big Government, but the people in the Government. When we put a new man in the White House, there is going to be the biggest exodus across the Potomac since Moses led his people across the Red Sea."

Last week his chances of becoming his party's nominee for the White House improved markedly. For one thing Jimmy Carter, Henry Jackson and Morris Udall bloodied each other in the New York and Wisconsin primaries. In New York, Jackson won almost as many delegates as the other two combined, but fell far short of the "landslide" he had predicted, while Carter barely managed to squeak by Udall in Wisconsin. The real winner was Humphrey, who hopes that a deadlock will force the Democratic convention to turn to him in July.

Build Support. At the same time, Pennsylvania's labor leaders decided to help Humphrey by doing what they can to defeat Carter in the state's April 27 primary, which is the next big contest. They agreed to turn out as many of their 1.5 million members as possible to work among the state's 2.8 million registered Democrats to build support for Jackson's and Udall's delegates, even though this means abandoning a few union members who are running as Carter delegates. In this way, Humphrey's backers hope to keep the Democratic race a three-man battle by stalling Carter. Prediets Democratic Chairman Robert Strauss: "It's going to be a bitter three weeks."

After the New York and Wisconsin count, the candidacies of Humphrey's rivals shaped up this way:

CARTER. Before the uproar over the "ethnic purity" gaffe, it could be said that his momentum was slowed, but he was far from stopped. As Mark Siegel, executive director of the Democratic National Committee, observed: "Carter had a rough week." In New York, he had hoped to do far better than his poor fourth place with 35 delegates, behind Jackson with 104, Udall with 70 and a block of 65 uncommitted delegates. In Wisconsin, Carter had hoped to win by a big enough margin to knock Udall out of the race. Instead, in a contest so close that NBC and ABC at first projected Udall as the winner (see THE PRESS), Carter got 37% of the vote, Udall 36%, George Wallace 13% and Jackson 7%.

Carter also suffered setbacks in caucus states. In Virginia, where Democrats were in the early stages of delegate selection, they gave him 30% of their votes, and 60% for uncommitted delegate slates. In Oklahoma, where the selection process was completed, he wound up with twelve delegates, but 18 delegates went uncommitted and seven went to Native Son Fred Harris, who dropped out last week as a candidate in the primaries.