The Helping Hand

The staff cameraman of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee has been busier lately than an old-fashioned wet-plate photographer at Coney Island. He has snapped pictures of no fewer than 106 G.O.P. congressional candidates with a beaming Dwight Eisenhower, and there is still a waiting list of anxious politicians. Last week, at his regular press conference, Ike was asked what qualifications a Congressman needed to get into a presidential picture. His answer was a brief essay on party loyalty and Ike's own plans for the coming campaign. It was also a warning to Republican irregulars.

The President admitted that he made a little name check to see whether a picture applicant has generally gone along with his program. Ike explained that he did not demand 100% conformity. (He told the conference later that he was still behind Kentucky's Senator John Sherman Cooper despite Cooper's votes against the AEC bill.) But he did believe that the principles on which he was trying to conduct the business of his office must be observed by a Republican Congressman; otherwise, the President should not try to help him.

Last week the President also: P:Turned the newly signed surplus commodities bill into a cold-war weapon by offering $4,000,000 worth of surplus foodstuffs to middle Europe flood victims on both sides of the Iron Curtain. East Germany called the offer "infamous."

P:Thanked blonde, attractive Mrs. Vicky K. Siegel of Irvington, N.J. for an oil portrait the young housewife had painted of him, but disagreed with her assessment that Ike "is a calm and placid person." The President insisted that he was a "rebellious type," with vigorous reactions, and said that he had recently been going through "an inner conflict" between his military training and the demands of political life.

P:Stopped gossip that he would rebuff the G.O.P. senatorial candidate in Illinois, Chicago Tribune-backed Joe Meek, by giving Meek an open letter of endorsement. In return, Ike got a written pledge of loyalty from Arch-Conservative Meek.

P:Saw to it that a swing was hung from a Norway maple on the back lawn of the White House, to the delight of his visiting grandchildren.

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