Pilgrim's Progress

Republican regulars looked at Harold Stassen with new interest. Partly it was because the overworked gossip about other presidential possibilities had turned stale for the time being. Partly it was because GOPsters were curious about the impact of his European jaunt. But mostly it was because of Stassen himself.

His flat refusal to be brushed off lightly was having its effect. Stassenites claimed growing strength, spreading out from Minnesota through the upper Mississippi Valley, into the prairie and border states, with tentacles reaching into New England and the Pacific Northwest. The pros could dismiss much of that as sheer partisan exuberance. But a Gallup poll a fortnight ago showed 44% of G.O.P. voters approving his policies, only 21% opposed (for Dewey, 74%; opposed, 19%).

The base of his support was broadening too. He had always had backing from young rank-&-filers, veterans, women voters, labor. Now he was picking up professional backers as well. Wisconsin's Senator Joe McCarthy had announced that he was behind Stassen for the Wisconsin presidential primary next spring.

Even the regulars, who distrusted Stassen's Willkiesque internationalism, had begun to realize that Harold Stassen was no Wendell Willkie. Unlike Willkie, he was first & last a good party Republican. When he was misquoted three weeks ago as being ready to accept the vice-presidential nomination, he had actually said, with careful hedging, that he would be a good party soldier if he were beaten for the No. 1 spot.

In the Spotlight. When Harold Stassen appeared in Jefferson, Iowa last week, for his first big foreign-policy speech since returning from abroad, the pros were listening carefully. His main points: the U.S. should devote 10% of its national production for the next ten years to the systematic rebuilding of the world; the U.S. would be repaid in needed raw materials and in the stability it was now trying to create piecemeal.

It was not the kind of speech that would sit well on diehard Republican stomachs. Even some Stassen supporters thought he might be talking too much, too early. But both agreed that, without the sounding board of elective office, it was his only way of keeping in the battle area, that he had a long stern-chase ahead if he were ever to get within shooting distance of Tom Dewey. As Harold Stassen started off this week on a political pilgrimage into Texas, they were also agreed with Stassen himself that he could not yet be discounted as just another also-ran.

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