Sweetheart Is Not the Name

At the big birthday party for Dwight Eisenhower in Pennsylvania last week, Big Keystone Republicans trundled onto the stage of the Hershey Arena to sing "Let Me Call You Sweetheart." As they sang, Senator James H. Duff. Governor John S. Fine and National Committeeman G. Mason Owlett definitely did not want to call each other sweetheart. Other names were on the tips of their tongues.

Later the same evening in the lobby of the Hershey Hotel, big, bristle-haired Jim Duff, who had got a bigger hand than any other Pennsylvania politico at the birthday party, was surrounded by backslapping, handshaking friends. Standing a few feet away, glowering to the full depth of his jowls, was Mason Owlett, who is the field general of ancient (90) Joe Grundy's Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association. Two reporters asked Owlett: What about rumors that Duff doesn't like life in the Senate, is planning to run for governor again next year? Owlett, unable to stand any more lionizing of Duff, exploded: "Duff can't win a primary fight . . . I've talked to county leaders who are friendly to Duff, and they don't want him to run."

The Gaping Habit. When Owlett's statement reached Duff's ears, the rough old (70) campaigner roared right back: "Once before, I had the occasion to remark that Mr. Owlett had the wretched habit of opening his mouth and walking away and leaving it. The . . . statement he issued . . . shows that Mr. Owlett still has the same gaping habit ... He is a flatfoot politically. How stupid can he get?"

With a new governor to be elected next year (Pennsylvania law prohibits two successive terms), there is a three-way split in Republican ranks. Governor John Fine, sometimes a Grundyman and sometimes a Duffman, is not now on cordial terms with either of the major forces. At the birthday party, one act called for all of the state G.O.P. leaders to hold standards topped by huge cards bearing full-face likenesses of themselves. When each pol's name was mentioned in a song parody, he was to raise his standard high above his head. Fine's card came loose, fell off and landed face down on the stage. The crowd roared, and Jim Duff grinned at Fine's obvious discomfiture. Witnessing the family unpleasantness. Republican State Chairman M. Harvey Taylor (a Duffman) asked: "When are the Republicans going to stop fighting each other and fight the Democrats?"

Gouging & Glee. The Democrats are watching the Republican wrestling match with great joy, cheering every gouged Republican eye. In Pittsburgh, Democratic Mayor David Lawrence (with the support of such Republican Republicans as Multimillionaire Richard K. Mellon and Andrew W. Robertson, finance committee chairman of the Westinghouse Electric Corp.) seems certain of reelection. In Philadelphia, Democratic District Attorney Richardson Dilworth, who ditched the Republican city machine, is turning his eyes toward the governorship. Statewide, Democrats hope that the G.O.P. civil war has hurt the party enough to defeat the two Republican candidates for state superior judgeships next month.

Many a Pennsylvania Republican thinks that the problem can be solved only by intervention from Washington, i.e., by Dwight Eisenhower and G.O.P. National Chairman Leonard Hall. The President, who is closer to Duff than to any other Keystone Republican, was cautiously neutral last week. He saw none of the party bigwigs in private. Before many months pass, Eisenhower and Hall may have to act. If the Pennsylvania Republicans continue to fight with themselves, they may well lose: i) the governorship, 2) control of the 30-member delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives, and 3) the presidential electoral votes in 1956.

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