Suspense

The Democratic National Convention was less than six months away, and party leaders were bewildered about a question that hadn't really bothered Democrats for nearly 20 years: Who will the candidate be?

A blizzard of rumors swirled around the White House, blew out to Illinois and spread across the country. There had been talk that Harry Truman wanted Fred Vinson, Chief Justice of the U.S., to run. But now Vinson's close friends said he had told the President he wants to stay on the bench. Another Justice, William O. Douglas, had written Truman a note saying he would not be a candidate. But Douglas' liberal friends insisted he is still available.

Is It Adlai? Political eyes & ears strained as Illinois' Governor Adlai Stevenson slipped into Washington and spent an hour and a half with Truman at Blair House. Later, both said only that they had discussed national and international politics and other subjects. But the word got around that Harry Truman was looking Stevenson over as a presidential prospect, and that they had talked about such personal matters as whether the Illinois governor's divorce would be a serious political handicap.

One Democrat moved boldly out of the rumor mill. Estes Kefauver, a smoothly tailored product of Yale Law School, who prefers to be regarded as a Tennessee mountain boy, announced in a Dogpatch drawl that he is a candidate. At a Washington press conference, the Tennessee Senator shook hands with himself for five minutes to please the photographers, made his announcement, then kissed his wife a dozen times for more pictures. This performance was punctuated by applause from his staff and friends.

Kefauver said he is a candidate "to the finish," no matter what Harry Truman does. He threw a still bolder punch when a reporter asked him if he thought the Truman Administration had done as much as it might to stamp out corruption. "No, I do not think so," he said.

This affront to the boss sent a chill through the regular Democrats, who were already cool toward Kefauver. Truman pointedly observed that Kefauver is a good Senator and he likes to see good Senators in the Senate.

Could It Be Estes? A staunch regular Democrat, Connecticut's Brien McMahon, rushed breathlessly into the Illinois presidential primary just ahead of the deadline. His aim: to cut down Kefauver, who had already entered. Former Senate Majority Leader Scott Lucas, who believes that the Kefauver committee's revelations of politics-crime tie-ups in Illinois defeated him in 1950, had persuaded McMahon that Kefauver would be easy to beat. But four days later, McMahon backed out just as suddenly as he had entered, murmuring that he is really for Truman.

The regular Democrats had taken a closer look and concluded that Estes Kefauver, although he is not strong with the professionals, is popular with more voters than the pros suspected. The organization men suddenly realized that Kefauver might knock out McMahon, and thus give the whole regular Democratic organization a bloody nose.

Man with the Key. The man who holds the key to the Democratic bewilderment is, of course, Harry Truman. But he was still being coy with everyone about whether he will be a candidate for reelection. At his press conference last week, he clapped his hands, threw back his head, and laughed as correspondents asked the question in every possible way. They asked about rumors that he will step down and run for the Senate from Missouri, or even for the House.* All he would say was that they probably would know about his answer before the deadline for filing in Missouri (April 29).

Truman continued to say, as he has since last March, that he knows what he is going to do. But even some of his closest friends have begun to doubt that he has made up his mind. Most of them agree that he doesn't want to run. Many think he is looking over the field of Democrats, searching for a strong candidate, but will run if he cannot find one. Others think he wants to wait until there is a clearer indication of who the Republican nominee will be.

Truman can certainly have the nomination if he wants it, but it is by no means certain that he can make the Democratic Convention accept his choice of a successor. If Truman doesn't run, the Democratic race may be wide open with a lawyer in a coonskin cap taking an early lead.

* There is historical precedent for either step. John Quincy Adams served 18 years in the House of Representatives after he left the White House in 1829. Andrew Johnson, who was President from 1865-69, was defeated later for the Senate and the House, finally was elected to the Senate in 1875.

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