The People's Choice

Montana has lost 35,000 population in the last two years, according to a survey by Montana State College. But last week Montana had 5,600 more voters registered than in 1940. Reason: a bitter primary election (July 21) in which the stake includes the political reputation of Senator Burton Kendall Wheeler, grand strategist of isolationism.

Wheeler has feuded since 1938 with his colleague, New-Dealing Senator James E. Murray. Wheeler's 1942 goal is to beat Murray by any means at hand.

But wealthy, sleek Jim Murray, although no man of might, has championed New Deal measures. His only opponent: former Congressman Joseph P. Monaghan, onetime baby of the House (1933), whose principal following is among the shreds and shards of Townsend clubs.

In the Republican primary the choice lies between a 57-year-old bachelor, Wellington D. Rankin (brother of pacifist Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin) and Jew-baiting, Fascist-minded ex-Congressman Jacob Thorkelson. Ignored by Montana's larger city newspapers, Jakie Thorkelson has conducted a busy rural campaign. His "issue": international bankers. All signs pointed to Rankin's nomination.

Tricky Campaigner Burton Wheeler, now estivating at his Glacier Park cabin, (thus "necessarily absent" from Senate roll calls), has once before jumped over to the Republican Party to beat an enemy. That was in 1938, when he backed Jakie Thorkelson to oust Representative Jerry O'Connell. Last week Montanans wondered whether Senator Wheeler, in the event Murray and Rankin are nominated, would again cross party lines. They wondered, too, on what issues Wheeler could campaign.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.