A Notorious Person

Robert Taft, the man whom organized labor wants most to beat, was in Ohio last week campaigning for his political life. When word got out that he would tour the Campbell plant of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co., some 100 employees decided to be outraged. They walked out, complaining against being made a "captive audience." Since most of them worked in the power plant, some 1,500 other employees had to be sent home.

At the gates to the mill, Taft was confronted by a line of angry men, greeted by a din of jeers and catcalls. Disregarding the advice of city detectives, he ordered his car slowed down. He leaned out his car window, grinned and said: "Hello there, fellows." Most of the strikers, he reported afterward, "smiled back at me when I waved and seemed glad to meet a notorious person." Inside the mill, Taft got a friendly reception from other workers, some of whom turned away from their furnaces and rollers to shake his hand.

While Taft tried to establish himself as the true friend of the working man, his opponent, State Auditor "Jumping Joe" Ferguson, tried to establish himself as a statesman, by being seen in the proper surroundings. As he does every couple of weeks, Ferguson bounced into the White House to get his picture taken there, and to assure the President that he will beat Taft by anywhere up to a million votes. Harry Truman apparently never tires of hearing Joe say so.

On his way out of the White House Jumping Joe gave reporters a mimeographed statement. It said: "It is my personal belief that Taft right now is secretly hoping for an American defeat in Korea as his last desperate chance for re-election." Even Democratic National Chairman William Boyle was taken aback by this know-nothing assault, but he recovered himself to predict: "Ferguson will walk away with the election."

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