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West Virginia's presidential primary got off to a flying and hedge-hopping start this week when both candidates descended on the state for a fast tour.

Senator Hubert H. Humphrey arrived three days after the Wisconsin vote, which he lost, to start recovering. Humphrey took to the hustings by bus, toured the southern half of the state primarily, and left for Washington.

Senator John F. Kennedy arrived by chartered plane in Parkersburg Monday morning, had breakfast there, lunch in Charleston, tea in Huntington and dinner in Beckley. In Beckley, in fact, he and Humphrey pulled up behind a stop light together, got out, shook hands and took off again.

This was only the first week in a campaign that promises to get hotter each day. Senator Robert C. Byrd, whose "political poll" last month showing Lyndon Johnson as West Virginia's favorite was exploded as inaccurate and incomplete, did nothing to calm things down. He announced that he was recommending to all supporters of Johnson, Sen. Stuart Symington and two-time candidate Adlai Stevenson, that they back Humphrey. It was the only way, he said, to stop Kennedy.

Analysts around the capitol in Charleston seemed inclined to agree with Byrd's assessment. They further felt that Humphrey, who calls himself the only poor candidate for the Democratic nomination, had plenty of money and it wasn't his. They felt that Symington and Johnson were diverting money to help him in West Virginia, and that Stevenson supporters were doing the same thing.

For whatever reason, the odds this week were on Humphrey. Though West Virginia labor leaders are officially staying neutral, they have expressed some private opinions in favor of Humphrey.

Then, too, West Virginia's strong Protestan leanings, with overtones of fundamentalism, were expected to county heavily against Catholic Kennedy. Of West Virginia's 112,000 Catholics, only 36,000 are voting-age Democrats. Against this in a religious test, which will be arrayed the hundreds of thousands of voting-age Protestant Democrats.

Nevertheless, whoever wins the May 10 primary is assured of no votes at the Los Angeles convention. The primary is a popularity poll. The state's 26 delegates, representing 25 votes, will be uncommitted.

Carroll Hawkins of Ripley has been appointed chairman for Jackson county, Kennedy for President Club, according to the announcement last week by Senator Ward Wylie, campaign chairman for U. S. Senator John F. Kennedy in West Virginia.

Hawkins is a member of Grass Lick Baptist Church, a member of the Grange, the Farm Bureau and the West Virginia Dairyman's Association.

He is a former official of the West Virginia Agriculture Department and has long been associated with the Democratic party in the county and the state.