MR STEVENSON NOMINATED

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28050, 18 August 1956, Page 11

MR STEVENSON NOMINATED

Easy Win On First Ballot

(W.Z. Press Association —Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.) CHICAGO, August 17. Mr Adlai Stevenson captured the Democratic Presidential nomination last night with an overwhelming first-ballot victory. Mr Stevenson, the candidate in 1952, easily defeated his chief rival, Mr Averell Harriman, the Governor of New York. A mighty cheer rose in Chicago’s huge barn-like international Amphitheatre as the Pennsylvania delegation cast the deciding votes for Mr Stevenson.

From the start of the balloting, there was never any doubt about the outcome.

The first State on the roll-call, Alabama, cast 154 votes for Mr Stevenson and scattered votes for various other candidates. The stampede was on and not to be halted. Before voting had finished Mr Stevenson had polled 905 i votes. He needed only 686 A votes for victory. Of the 54 States and Territories, only seven failed to ca t any votes for him. They were Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma. Texas, and Virginia. But when the chairman (Mr Sam Rayburn) called for a vote for Mr Stevenson by acclamation they, too, joined in to make it unanimous. Mr Harriman had one big moment — when his own New York gave him 924 votes to 51 for Mr Stevenson. But he gathered little other support, and finished with only 210 votes. Then came the seven “favourite son” candidates, led by Senator Lyndon Johnson, of Texas, who polled 80 votes. One of them, Mr Frank Lausche, the Governor of Ohio, was not even nominated, but the Ohio delegation insisted on giving him 54 votes. Mr Stevenson, who had been working since morning on an acceptance speech which he will deliver before the convention tonight, watched the balloting on television in the office of his law partner, Mr William Blair. During the early balloting, he continued to work steadily at his speech. When the trend towards him became unmistakable, he changed his shirt. He also shaved. “How Am I Doing?”

At one stage when there was a mighty roar, he asked: “How am I doing?’’ His secretary. Miss Carol Evans, replied: “It’s Chandler by a landslide.” When the Pennsylvania vote gave him the nomination, the office staff crowded into Mr Blair’s office and applauded and cheered. Mr Stevenson joined in. He then faced the throng of reporters and photographers waiting outside. Mr Stevenson said he was “relieved and happy,” and then got into a car. A bystander yelled “Give ’em hell, Adlai.” With a police escort’s sirens screaming, he was rushed to the Stockyards Inn, next to the amnhitheatre. As he got out of the car. he said he felt “fine 7, and “happy.” He pushed through the crush, to meet in the inn the convention chairman (Mr Rayburn) and the party chairman (Mr Paul Butler) to discuss his’plans for appearing at the convention.