One of Those Mornings

"This is one of those mornings," rumbled Big Jim Duff cheerfully, "when it's a pleasure to get out of bed." Pennsylvania's strapping governor was as relaxed as a man who hadn't yet gotten up. In the Capitol at Harrisburg, his long legs were draped over the edge of his massive circular desk. He had just clobbered the G.O.P.'s Old Guard in last week's primaries.

Ten weeks ago, Big Jim rattled the teeth of the conservative Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association with a suggestion that industry ought to cut prices (TIME, March 8). Then he served blunt notice on the Old Guard that he would swing as much of the state's 73-man convention delegation as he could behind a progressive Republican presidential candidate.

The regulars set out to get him. Hastily but carefully they organized a "write-in" campaign for Duff's old mentor and present campaign foe, U.S. Senator Ed Martin. They launched a heavily financed attack on the governor's state chairman, Harvey Taylor, who was running for renomination as state senator. A fortnight ago Congressman Clarence Brown, Taft's campaign manager, predicted confidently: "Duff will be handled."

But when the primary returns were in, Favorite Son Martin had run a poor third behind Harold Stassen (whose backers had bucked hard for him) and Tom Dewey (who had waged no campaign at all). Not only had Taylor been renominated; throughout the state Duff's candidates for convention delegates had won. Jim Duff concluded, tentatively, that some 60 of the delegates, perhaps more, would vote with him.

Observers knew that Jim Duff was heart & soul for Michigan's Senator Arthur Vandenberg, hesitated to speak only because he had no assurance that Vandenberg was a serious candidate. Vandenberg had run sixth in the state's primary. Said Jim Duff: "I feel certain that if [people] had known he was available his vote would have been much larger . . ."

In the 1940 convention, Pennsylvania had made a celebrated boner by waiting too long to hop on the Willkie bandwagon, and then having to chase it down the road. Jim Duff was not going to make that mistake this time. Political dopesters in Harrisburg heard that arrangements had been made for Alabama to yield to Pennsylvania on the critical ballot. Jim Duff might be the man to swing the convention.

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