Candidate Abroad

Barnstorming Presidential Candidate Harold Stassen whirled through Belgium in one day. France took only five. But this week as he headed for Athens, on the third leg of his two-month, 18-country tour, he was scooping up information like a snowplow.

He concentrated on interviews. In Paris he sat down with Foreign Minister Georges Bidault, Premier Paul Ramadier, President Vincent Auriol, Communist Labor Boss Benoit Frachon, and a raft of other politicians and industrialists. In his off-hours he hustled through the Renault and Chausson factories (autos and trucks) and a textile plant; he talked with businessmen, workers, storekeepers. He had the usual trouble with the French telephone system.

At his first overseas press conference, Candidate Stassen was caught in no snap judgments. But at a private session he hammered away at one generalization: Europe's problems are essentially economic; at the heart of them is coal. Said he: "That leads you to the Saar and the Ruhr and Silesia. I'll have to go to Germany and Poland before I know the answer to that one."

About domestic politics he had nothing to say. But he was gathering the ammunition to say plenty when he got back to the U.S.

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