U.S. ELECTION COMMENT

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26886, 12 November 1952, Page 9

U.S. ELECTION COMMENT

TAFT SAYS HE WOULD HAVE WON

(Rec. 11.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, Nov. it). Senator Robert Taft, who was defeated for the Republican Party’s Presidential nomination, said today he thought he would have won the election if the Republicans had nominated him. -

Senator Taft also said he would have carried more of the party’s candidates with him into the Senate than Mr Eisenhower.

The Democrats lost votes with their charges that Mr Eisenhower surrendered to him at their vital unitv meeting in New York, said Senator Taft. Mr Joseph Martin, the Republicans’ leader in the House of Representatives, said he was inclined to think Mr Eisenhower “is the only man we could have won with this year,” although “you can’t know.”

The Republicans won 23 of the 35 seats at stake in the Senate for a net gain of one, counting the defection of Senator Wayne Morse, of Oregon. The Democrats won 12 seats, for a net loss of two. The Republicans have a one vote margin in the Senate, where there are now 48 Republican members. 47 Democrats and one independent.—Senator Morse. The Democrats narrowed the Republican majority in the new House of Representatives to 11 with the victory of a Democratic Congressional candidate in Florida. After trailing by about 2000 votes in the counting of the absentee ballot, Mr William Cramer (Republican - ) conceded defeat by Mr Courtenay Campbell (Democrat) in the race for Florida’s first congressional district.

More Rebels Killed in Burma.— Burmese troops killed 14 Communist rebels in a 24-hour battle for the strategic Aungban bridge, 200 miles north of Rangoon, it was reported today. Three other rebels were killed in operations around Toungpoo, 180 miles north-east of Rangoon.—Rangoon, November 11.