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"6Crime-Buster" In Line
For Presidency
From ROBERT NIELSEN, in Washington
A Crusader in a coonskin cap is threatening to upset
all United States political calculations in this Presidential elec
tion year.
When Senator Estes
Kefauver, of Tennessee, de
feated President Truman in
the first of the Democratic
primaries in New Hampshire
on March 11, his feat de
monstrated at least three
things.
(1) The power of television;
(2) the public's yearning for
clean government; (3) a politic
al rebel who fights hard can
sometimes prevail over an ef
ficient nolitical machine.
Television cannot claim all
the credit for Kefauver's tri
umph. But it is a fact that
while 10 years of excellent ser
vice in Congress failed to make
him a National figure, a few
weeks before the television
cameras did. Kefauver's fame
dates from his chairmanship
last year of the Senate crime
investigation hearings, watched
by millions.
It is clear now that many of
the T.V. watchers discerned in
the big, rugged man from Ten
nessee a genuine champion
against wrong-doing and cor
ruption. Kefauver's committee
played no favourites: he went
ahead exposing tie-ups be
tween ciime and politics, not
caring whether the tainted poli
ticians were Democrats or Re
publicans.
SVEN so. Kefauv
Jj er's sweep in
New Hampshire
was one of the most surprising
events in United States politics
since Mr. Truman's re-election
to the presidency in 1948. The
whole Democratic organisation
in the .State was backing the
President, while the senator's
organisation there was almost
non-existent.
Mr. Truman's candidates for
delegates to the Democratic
national convention were well
known and popular figures,
while the Kefauver slate was
made up of political nobodies.
The prophets had said that
possibly one of the Kefauver
standard-bearers might be
elected; but when the ballot
count was complete, all 12 had
won easily.
When Kefauver announced
his candidacy for the Demo
cratic Presidential nomination
earlier this year, over President
Truman's opposition, he called
for "new blood and new ideas"
in the nation's political life.
New Hampshire Democrats
defied the party machine to
register their approval of that
idea, and there is no telling
how far the uprising may go.
Of course, one primary does
not make a president any more
than one swallow makes a
summer. Even if Kefauver
wins all the primary elections
between now and the July con
vention, the odds will still be
against him if Mr. Truman
remains hostile. The presi
dent, through his hold on the
party organisation, is expected
to control a majority of the
convention delegates.
Another factor unfavourable
to Kefauver is geographical.
No southerner has been nom
inated for president for either
party since before the Civil
War.
But the six-foot-three, 220
pound Tennesseean has won
against odds before now. HIe
licked the potent political boss,
Ed Crump of Memphis, in
securing the Tennessee Demo
cratic nomination to the
Senate in 1948.
T was in that
campaign that
the coonskin
cap, traditional pioneer head
dress, became tihe Kefauver
emblem. Crump had called
him a "pet coon" in newspaper
ads., implying he was a fav
ourite of Communists. In
reply, Kefauver said the coon
was a perfectly good Ameri
can animal and donned a
coonskin cap at his next speak
ing engagement. The crowd
enjoyed it, and the cap became
a regular "prop."
Kefauver, 48, is a descend
ant of a French-Huguenot
family that settled in Tennes
see before the American rev
olution. He was educated at
the University of Tennessee,
where his staunch work as
football tackle gained him the
nickname, "Old Ironsides,"
and graduated -with honours
from the Yale law school in
1927. Interested in politics
from boyhood, he first won
election to the House of Rep
resentatives in 1939, and served
five successive two-year terms
there before entering the
Senate.
Kefauver's reputation as a
crime-buster has tended to ob
scure his performance as a
legislator in Washington. A
New Dealer in the Roosevelt
tradition he has consistently
upheld the rights of organised
labour. HIe was co-author of
a bill designed to curb business
monopolies and trusts.
A strong believer in inter
national cooperation, he has
supported the reciprocal aid
and foreign aid programmes
of the Truman administration,
and has been an advocate of
United States participation in
construction of the St. Law
rence seaway. He is about as
liberal as a southern politician
can afford to be in regard to
civil rights: while he opposed
President Truman's Fair Elm
ployment Practices Act, lie
acked nmeasuITres to ensure
Negroes the right to vote and
favoured abolition of the poll
tax.
Kefauver calt work or cam
paign 16 to 18 hours a day.
In his drive for the presidency,
he will call on every bit of his
great energy, his personal mag
netism, his never-say-die de
termination. Whether or not
he can reach the goal is one
of the most important ques
tions that will be answered in
1952.
$