Over the First Hurdle

POLITICAL NOTES Over the First Hurdle

“Labor-union organizers’,” Henry Ford once said, “are the worst thing that ever struck the earth.” Last week a labor-union organizer had cleared the first hurdle on the way to becoming mayor of Henry Ford’s city.

In Detroit’s nonpartisan mayoralty primary, big, burly Richard Truman Frankensteen, 38, vice president of the C.I.O.’s mighty United Automobile Workers, not only won nomination, but, to the surprise of everybody, led the field of seven. His closest opponent was three-term Mayor Edward J. Jeffries Jr., who will oppose Frankensteen in the run-off November election.

To help Democrat Frankensteen -win, the hard-digging C.I.O. Political Action Committee canvassed the city, brought out 200,000 voters, 60,000 more than politicos had forecast. Besides Mayor Jeffries, Dick Frankensteen might also have to overcome opposition from Detroit’s A.F. of L. unions; they talked of lining up solidly against him.