OCR
— page threef = " is perfectly clear, The whole strategy is to hold fim during the first two ballotis, to permit Taft to spend his strength, and then Slowly to draw ahead, Everything is based on this consideration, It is likely to succeed, unless = and herein lies the great danger for Bisenhower = Taft is able to put up such a show of strength on the first ballott, that he is able to start the bandwaggon rolling and that on the second he will thus gain fence=sitters, who normally wogid go to Eisenhower. It is this position which explains the ob= vious effort of the Taft forces to overestimate their own voting strength in public, so as to gain waverers. These exaggerated . Clains are likely to increase in the next few hourse ae The fifth point is - and it is most important -bthat the Eisenhower campaign has infinitely more financial resources that the Taft forces, This can be of decisive influence on certain DeleThe sixth point is, that the decision of the Republican National Committee to decide itself on the question of the con= tested Delegations, is a move for inner pacificatione While it is not yet certain, this move might lead eventually to a fair come promise, which, in satisfying somehow both claims, would permit to solve this question more easily. If this is done so, it would be a value for both sides - since the Taft forces winning with the help of the contested Delegations would have given the Democrats more than ample ammunition to defeat them in the campaign. ; The seventh point is, that in the opinion of this obser-~ ver, in the fight for the unpledged Delegates, both sides have made some headway. Eisenhower is Paining ground in Pennsylvania, and Governor Fine seems now more favourably inclined towards the Gene= ral. On the other hand Taft seems to have made some inroads into fhe Calaformia Delegation despite the fact that Governor Warren seems disposed at holding out as long as possible, in the hope of himself in the forefront as a compromise Candidate in case of a ded= lock, While this is in the mind of the Governor, it should not be forgotten, that Warren is not very popular with the Party, ince he made a poor show during the 1948 campaign, when he was ewey's Vice=Presidential aspirant. Furthermore never forget, that in the recent Califomia primaries Warren polied much less votes then Knowlandse And Taft at the present moment is teying very hard to gain Knowland to accept the Vice-Presidential position on a Tatt-ticket, Kndwlend has as yet not said "no" but has also not yet said “yes",_ Thig is therefore the position as the Delegates go to Chicago. Indeed there rarely was a Convention, where the situation was less clear than at the present one, The only way to keep a