Point of No Return

For years Nebraskans virtually ignored personal-property taxes, fibbed unashamedly to the county assessor. A look at tax rolls made it appear that most Nebraskans were living as primitively as their sod-busting pioneer ancestors--without refrigerators, radios, gas stoves or jewelry. Last year Freshman Governor Robert Crosby told citizens that real-estate taxes could be lowered if they would honestly pay their personal-property taxes. Crosby, young (43) and ambitious, started an "Operation Honesty" campaign, crisscrossed the state by plane (TIME, March 15), making speeches every chance he got.

When Senator Dwight Griswold died this year, the governor filed as a candidate to serve the remaining four years of Griswold's term. His chief opponent in the G.O.P. primary was veteran (eight terms) Congressman Carl T. Curtis, 49. Last week the primary election ballots were counted, and Curtis was an overwhelming winner. Crosby, it seemed, had carried honesty too far.

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