Gallup Says Conant Fifth Behind 'Ike' in GOP Race

President Conant stands fair to be the GOP's dark horse presidential nominee for '52, according to a Gallup poll published in last week's Look. The 58-year-old University head placed fifth in the national survey. The poll assumed that Eisenhower would not accept the nomination.

Top favorite chosen by citizens representing the major communities and walks of life in the country were Paul G. Hoffman one time administrator of the Economic Cooperative Association, Henry Cabot Lodge '24, Senator from Massachusetts, and Charles E. Wilson, now acting as Defense Mobilization director, in that order.

Independent voters, whose swing is predicted to decide the election as it did those of both Roosevelt and Truman, and Republicans placed Conant fourth on their preference lists. Of those who declared themselves as Democrats, 40 percent, put Conant in fifth place.

No Old Faces

Gallup and the editors of Look feel that to end their 20-year losing streak, the Republican party cannot put old faces like Robert A. Taft's, Harold Stassen's, of Governor Earl Warren's, before the nation's voters again. What the party needs is a known and respected figure, not previously involved in controversial politics, the magazine article stated.

Gallup selected nine possibilities, including Robert Patterson, former Secretary of War, James H. Duff, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, Margaret Chase Smith, U.S. Senator from Maine, Alfred E. Driscoll, Governor of New Jersey since '46, and John J. McCloy, U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, and asked a cross section of voters to pick its preference.

Conant's work as wartime chairman of the national Defense Research Committee, and his assistance in the development of the atomic bomb, may be responsible for his esteem by the nation, the magazine reported. His recent travels and numerous speeches, given play in most of the country's large papers, have also helped put him in the public eye, Look stated.

With political conventions less than a year away, and presidential primaries only months in the future, speculation and prediction on the fate of the GOP are rife. Despite the setback in his Dewey victory forcast in '48, Gallup feels that Truman could not stand against a popular and non-controversial Republican. Now that this party has control, albeit split control, of Congress, the time has come to put a Republican in the White House. Elsewhere Gallup, as well as other political observers, have expressed the belief that another defeat for the GOP would make way for the rise of a strong third party, along the pattern of Britain Laborites.

The nation's number five choice for president could not be reached in time for comment on the poll, but a statement is expected soon.