Mr. Retail v. the Professor

After the votes were counted in Illinois' primary elections last week, the nominees for the U.S. Senate were overflowing with diplomacy. Said Senator Paul Douglas, unopposed in the Democratic primary: "I'll wage my campaign without malice, and in good temper." Said Joseph T. Meek, the Chicago Tribune-supported candidate who beat eight other Republicans: "It's always been 'Paul' and 'Joe' between us."

Despite these muted statements, there was good reason to believe that the tone will grow considerably harsher as November approaches. For in Paul and Joe, Illinois voters nominated two candidates who offer a clear contrast.

Paul Douglas, onetime professor at the University of Chicago, is a tousled scholar, a philosophizer, an internationalist, a supporter of the New and Fair Deals. He thinks much of the Eisenhower Administration's foreign policy is basically sound, but has serious doubts about its domestic policies.

Joe Meek, formerly a small-town merchant, is a well-combed, practical Midwestern businessman. He organized the Illinois Federation of Retail Associations in 1935, has been its president ever since. As such, he lobbies for his association's 60,000 retailer members, and is proud of it. Helping the cause of the small businessman, he believes, is the best way to promote long-term prosperity in the U.S. His favorite label for himself: "Mr. Retail."

To Chicagoan Meek, who fought unceasingly against wartime price controls, Paul Douglas is a "symbol of socialism." In contrast to the Douglas view, he thinks that most of the Eisenhower Administration's domestic policies are basically sound, but has some doubts about its foreign policies, e.g., he wants foreign aid cut sharply. He is close to Douglas on one, and probably no more than one, basic issue: both favor lower tariffs.

The battle between Douglas and Meek is likely to be bitter, and the result close. One major issue that neither man can control but each will try to use: the condition of the U.S. economy. Paul Douglas has been crying that the U.S. may be heading for a depression, has made the main issue of his campaign "the restoration of prosperity and substantially full employment." If the economy turns solidly upward before November, Mr. Retail will be able to saw off the Professor's self-made economic limb.

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