At the Half Mile

If Richard Nixon was upset by Nelson Rockefeller's candidacy--or the New Yorker's unexpected victory in Massachusetts--he had no trouble at all hiding his annoyance. Not only did he formally welcome Rockefeller's entry into the race--he even seemed genuinely pleased to have an open opponent at last. Choosing his words carefully, he jabbed at Rockefeller only indirectly for his refusal to enter the primaries: "I think the people ought to have something to say about the selection of a nominee. Others, of course, may have a different viewpoint and decide not to enter the primaries."

Though he was assured of victory in this week's Indiana primary--his was the only name on the G.O.P. ballot--Nixon nevertheless was eager to rack up a big vote to prove to the convention delegates that the people were indeed speaking his name. The crowds suggested that they were. At the Gary airport, 5,000 people waved and shouted at him, their voices reverberating in a huge hangar. "Do you want to go down a new road," asked Nixon, "or go down an old road with new faces?" The throng left no doubt that they preferred the Nixon route.

Later, at Indianapolis' Southport High School, 8,000 more--children, teen-agers and adults--stamped their feet and clapped their hands as if the home team had just won the state basketball championship. "As I stand here in my mother's state,"* said Nixon, "I am glad to be back home in Indiana." The crowd was nearly evangelical in its response, one woman exclaiming over and over again: "Amen, amen, Nixon! He can't be beat." Along with the usual campaign placards, a new sticker appeared on Hoosier cars: "Feel Safer with Nixon." The candidate must also have felt safe: this was the state he carried by nearly 225,000 votes in the 1960 election.

Avoiding Division. While his reception in Indiana was unexpectedly emotional, Nixon himself was characteristically cool in his second radio address on the problems of the city and the Negro. Spelling out in detail the broad programs he had outlined the week before, he stressed the need for tax credits and other relatively inexpensive Government incentives to encourage industry to build in the slums and rural poverty areas. "The old ways have failed," he said. "The crisis of the old order is not the crisis of today."

Ending up the week as the guest of Governor Louie Nunn at the Kentucky Derby, Nixon had every reason for cheer. At the half mile, he himself was way out in front and could afford the luxury of a fervent appeal to party unity. Republicans must at all cost, he said, avoid the "deep division that would come from choosing up sides--civil war, bloodletting, cannibalism, call it what you will."

* Her family came from Butlerville, Ind.

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