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Sen. John F. (Jack) Kennedy (D-Mass) and Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey (D-Minn), today again picked up the gauge of battle in West Virginia for the state's prized presidential preference rating in the primary election May 10.

Sen. Kennedy arrived by plane at Tri-State Airport at 8:30 a. m. and immediately swung into a fast-paced tour of Southern West Virginia coal-mining communities after speeches and hand-shaking in Huntington. His stop here was the third of his campaign.

Sen. Humphrey, also paying a return visit to the Mountain State, took off from Charleston early this morning in a chartered bus with "Here Comes Humphrey" on the front.

Humphrey in full and explosive oratorical form despite scores of whistle-stop talks lately, is making a two-day tour of West Virginia's mountains and valleys. His route will be through coal-mining sections of the state's central and northeastern parts, and into the Eastern Panhandle, an area of orchards and poultry farms.

Kennedy is making a three-day bus tour. It will take him across the southern coal fields to Bluefield, on the Virginia border, then northeast through the bluegrass farming country of the placid Greenbrier Valley. The senator will wind up in Charles Town on Wednesday evening, a day behind Humphrey.

Senator Kennedy in a breakfast address at the Hotel Prichard in Huntington said the West Virginia presidential preference primary may have become climatic, and that if he wins over Humphrey the only other Democratic presidential candidate on the ballots the way to the White House may be opened to him.

A defeat would be a severe but not necessarily fatal setback to his presidential aspirations, Sen. Kennedy declared.

He reported that, while he was in Oregon following his second visit to Huntington Wednesday, April 20, the suggestion was made that he, Sen. Humphrey, Sen. Stuart H. Symington (D-Mo) and Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Tex) and Adlai Stevenson withdraw from the presidential preference race in favor of Sen. Wayne Morse (D-Ore.)

Sen. Kennedy said he was not prepared to abandon the primary principle of expressing preference for a presidential nominee. This would leave the field open for "a few men of influence to pick the nominee," Sen. Kennedy added.

"A presidential preference nominee gives the ordinary people a chance to express themselves about the man who is to go to the White House," the senator continued.

He pointed out that present campaign circumstances have catapulted West Virginia's primary into one of extreme importance, and occupying the attention of the entire nation. "This is the first time that West Virginia has occupied such an important role politically," Sen. Kennedy declared. "Her people now have a major voice in the selection of a president. West Virginia actually could direct the nomination."

Sen. Kennedy, saying that he is "running as hard as I can," said he has been heartened by the fact that the Gallup polls show he is ahead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

He declared that West Virginia has nothing to gain from continuance of the present situation of a Republican president and a Democratic Congress.

The situation of Democratic-inspired legislation reaching a veto-minded president and being killed on his desk would be eneded, the speaker indicated, by election of a Democratic president and continuing in office a Democratic Congress.

Sen. Kennedy again took up the subject of West Virginia's depressed areas, asserting the state should have more defense contracts. (The senator's brother, Robert Kennedy, who was here also, said that West Virginia, among all the 50 states, has the second fewest defense contracts. Only Vermont has fewer).

Sen. Kennedy advocated dropping the high interest rates the Eisenhower administration has imposed. He said these have so stifled construction that housing is 300,000 units under what it ought to be.

Senator Kennedy toured the Huntington Manufacturing Co.'s plant and made a TV address following breakfast.

The senator after leaving Huntington visited and shook hands with patients at the U. S. Veterans Hospital in Wayne county. His route thereafter included stops at Lavalette, Wayne, Crum, Kermit, Williamson, Omar and Logan. He was to deliver an address at Wayne and will be principal speaker at an evening rally at Logan.

Among guests at the Huntington breakfast meeting, besides Senator Kennedy and his brother Robert, were Sergeant [sic] Shriver, the senator's brother-in-law; Chet Huntley, NBC news analyst who is in the area to do a report on West Virginia politics; William Battle, son of the former governor of Virginia, and Joe Stydahar of Chicago, former West Virginia University and Chicago Bears football star.

Kennedy's schedule for tomorrow includes Pineville, Mullens, Welch and Bluefield. The next day he will visit Princeton, Athens, Hinton, Alderson, Ronceverte, Lewisburg, White Sulphur Springs and Charles Town.

Senator Humphrey's itinerary follows: Today, Fairmont, Summersville, Craigsville, Webster Springs, Buckhannon and Phlippi. Tomorrow, Fairmont, Grafton, Fellowsville, Kingwood, Aurora, Keyster [sic], Romney, Berkeley Springs, Martinsburg and Charles Town. Senator Humphrey will make an evening appearance in Charles Town next Thursday.

At Wayne, Sen. Kennedy said federal agencies should be directed to give depressed areas special preference in the awarding of government contracts.

He told about 250 persons standing in warm sunshine on the courthouse lawn that "West Virginia, which was first in the proportion of its men who shed their blood in Korea, is last among the states in defense payrolls, last in defense employment and last in the amount of money spent by the defense department."

He also advocated what he called "coal by wire" - the generating of electricity through the use of coal. West Virginia's mining industry is employing about 65 per cent of the number of men working a decade ago.

Sen. Kennedy had a prepared speech for the brief stopover at Wayne, but he touched only on a few points of the text. Instead, he seemed to prefer shaking hands, chatting with groups and offering a more down-to-earth approach to his campaign technique.

Marshall College students, in a cross section poll, chose U. S. Senator John F. Kennedy (D-Mass) two-to-one over U. S. Senator Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn) to win the state's Democratic presidential primary on May 10.

Of the students polled, 391 were in favor of Sen. Kennedy and 176 chose Sen. Humphrey.

The poll was taken by staff members of The Parthenon, Marshall student newspaper, and students in journalism classes.

The majority of the women students were in favor of Kennedy, mainly because of his youthfulness and looks.

Kennedy's religion was also a big "if" with the students.

Ernie Cunningham, Point Pleasant junior, said, "I feel that Kennedy cannot do his job as President without his religion interfering."

Rom Simonton, Huntington junior said, "I would vote for Kennedy because I feel that he is more liberal than the other candidate."

"I would vote for Kennedy because I feel that he is more qualified and I have heard more about him and what he has done," Barbara Mathis, Oceana freshman, said.

Fletcher Walls, Barboursville sophomore chose Humphrey over Kennedy because "he has an excellent record for voting for agriculture, and labor and has a good stand on civil rights. With his liberal attitutde he would put the mechanics of our government into operation."

Dorothy Neal, Slab Fork sophomore, said, "I would like to see Kennedy get it because I think he is a better qualified man than Humphrey, I would just as soon have a man in the office of President with his religion as I would to have a man of a hot temper like Humphrey."

Don Fannin, Barboursville senior said, "I have more of a tendency to vote for Humphrey because he is a liberal and intelligent. His ability is sometimes underestimated because of his outspokenness."

SUMMERSVILLE, W. Va. (AP) - Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey (D-Minn) bounded out of his campaign bus at this central West Virginia mining town and began pumping the hands of the 35 to 40 residents who waited in a little knot to greet him.

Halfway through the handshaking, Humphrey gestured toward the restaurant in back of them.

"Go right inside, folks, while I step over here and shake hands with these neighbors," he bubbled.

The tir[e]less Minnesotan was on the trail for votes again in this crucial preferential primary May 10. He and his staff had left Charleston at dawn and driven 68 miles before stopping here for breakfast.

While he swung through the central section and headed north toward a night rally at Fairmont, his rival, Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass) was touring the coal-mining communities of southern West Virginia. Humphrey cut a wide swath through that area several days ago.

Over steaming coffee, Humphrey attacked "this well-fed, complacent Republican Administration which ignores the terrible hunger now striking communities in West Virginia and elsewhere."

"I don't care what the Republicans say (about prosperity)," Humphrey declared, "as long as American families are pushed to hunger by forces beyond their control, I will not relax my efforts...the hungry cannot wait."