Delaware started trickle that led to Truman flood
Its eight votes switched to Senator only drop in bucket, but nobody stuck finger in dike
How they climbed on Truman bandwagon
Before changes After changes Truman 477½ 1032 Wallace 473 104 Cooper 26 26 Barkley 40 6 Douglas 1 4 McNutt 28 1 Lucas 38 0 Broughton 30 0 Bankhead 23½ 0 O’Mahoney 8 0 Pepper 3 0 Kerr 1 0 Absent 7 3 — — — TOTAL 1176 1176
Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Nobody knew it then, but the trickle that became the flood was tiny Delaware’s eight votes.
On the first ballot, Delaware cast its then-not-particularly-precious eight votes for Vice President Henry A. Wallace. In that first ballot, the Democratic Convention gave Wallace 429½ votes for renomination – far short of the 589 required, but still a handsome testament.
Senator Harry S. Truman (D-MO), the man who seemed to be a great many delegates’ second choice, got 319½ votes, and the dope was that – if certain states did what was expected – he might win, if the Wallace people weakened, on maybe the third or fourth ballot.
Senator Truman himself said, “No,” as loudly as Senator Truman ever says “No,” when somebody asked him if he had a chance to win on the second ballot.
Breach is widened
So, the second ballot started at 6:49 p.m. CT, and the history of the first ballot was repeated until undersized Delaware came along. Here and there an eyebrow went up when Delaware’s chairman announced, “Delaware casts eight votes for Truman.” But eight votes are only a drop in the bucket at political conventions.
At any rate, nobody stuck his finger in the dike, and 11 states later the breach widened when Maryland, switching from Governor Herbert R. O’Conor, its first-ballot favorite, cast 18 votes for Truman.
Still nobody knew it, but the damage was done. Oklahoma followed Maryland’s suit and, dropping her man, Governor Robert S. Kerr, tossed 22 hefty second-ballot voted to the Missourian.
No candidate has majority
With the end of the poll a long way off, somewhere between Oklahoma and Vermont, Senator Truman edged into a precarious, indecisive lead over Wallace. After Vermont, the count stood at 365 for Wallace and 367 for Truman.
Even then, the Wallace people didn’t guess what was happening to them. nor did the Truman forces know that they were in. True, Virginia switched her 24 votes from Senator John H. Bankhead (D-AL) to Truman. But 24 plus 367 was still far from the 589 votes required for nomination.
The balloting went on to the end with the Virgin Islands, last on the list, casting its two votes for Wallace. No candidate had a majority, and the bulletin went out that the second ballot, like the first, had ended without a decision.
Mississippi tipoff
But before the count reached the Virgin Islands, something had happened which had a profound effect upon the jury. On the roll call of the states, Mississippi had passed. Later, while the count was still proceeding, Mississippi swiped a second or two over the loudspeaker to announce that it now wanted to throw all of its 20 votes, previously cast for Bankhead, to Truman.
The chairman said Mississippi was out of order and would have to wait until the roll call was finished to announce its stand. But the other states, particularly the other Southern states, had got the idea.
Alabama switches
Hardly had the word gone out that the second ballot had failed to produce a candidate – the count standing at 477½ for Truman and 473 for Wallace – when Alabama changed its vote to 22 for Truman and two for Wallace.
At almost the same time, the Indiana delegation withdrew the name of Paul V. McNutt from the contest. Two minutes later, Maine upped its Truman count, and the flood was on.
In a space of three minutes, 11 states revised their vote in favor of Truman. Eleven minutes after Alabama started the bandwagon rush, a bulletin cleared announcing that the Democratic National Convention had nominated Senator Harry S. Truman of Missouri for Vice President.