For two bitter days last week, the political eyes of the U.S. were upon Texas, where the G.O.P. was trying to decide whether the state's 38 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Chicago would be for Taft or Eisenhower.
To settle things, 12,000 Republicans squeezed into Mineral Wells (pop. 7,763) for the state convention. The resort town's motto, "Rest & Relax," mocked the tense and tussling delegates. Thirty-one of the state's 254 counties, including most of the populous cities (e.g., Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth), had sent two rival delegations apiece. In all,...