The Shining Evidence

On a 692-station radio and television hookup last week, President Eisenhower addressed himself to all the people of the U.S. He spoke as the political leader of the Republican Party, and he spoke on behalf of the Republican Party candidates for Congress. In so doing, he gave renewed proof that, when he permits himself to be, he is a highly effective politician.

Ike's speech originally was scheduled as a routine appeal to get out the vote. He was persuaded to let out the political stops by G.O.P. bigwigs, who were in and out of Denver all week with doleful reports of Republican chances. Their pessimism was backed by a Gallup poll, which indicated that, outside the South, Republican congressional candidates hold only a 51% to 49% lead--and a 55% G.O.P. vote outside the South is considered necessary for control of Congress. The day of his speech Ike spent long hours going over campaign strategy with top Republicans, who had been summoned to Denver.

Before the President uttered a word in Denver's Civic Auditorium Annex, it was clear that this was to be a strictly Republican occasion; Ike posed with G.O.P. leaders flanking him on either side; he was introduced by an ebullient Vice President Richard Nixon, who loped onto the stage. In his first nine sentences, the President mentioned the Republican Party five times.

The Past. On Nov. 4, 1952, said President Eisenhower, U.S. voters crowded the polls to dictate a change in Government. What did they want?

"Two years ago," said Ike, "Americans wanted an end to the war in Korea--a war allowed to become futile, seemingly without end . . . Americans wanted a Government thrifty and frugal with the public's money. They wanted a stop to the endless rise in taxes, taking more and more of the family income to support an overgrown Washington bureaucracy. They wanted something done about inflation--to end the growing discouragement, as, day by day, pensions and savings and the weekly paycheck bought less and less at the corner store. Americans were determined to eliminate penetration by the Communist conspiracy in our Government and in our whole society. They did not consider it a red herring."

On the 1952 world scene, the President recalled, war raged in Indo-China as well as in Korea. Iran, with 60% of the world's known petroleum reserves, lay in deadly danger. Suez and Trieste were constant threats to peace. Even in the Americas, Communists were ready to take over Guatemala. All these were problems handed over to the Republican Administration.

The Present. How well have the Republicans met the challenge? Ike proudly ticked off some answers:

P: Government costs have been cut by $11 billion and taxes by $7.4 billion--the "largest tax reduction in history." The U.S. has been given "the strongest armed forces in our peacetime history" for less money. The Government has stopped roasting coffee, baking bread and making paint. It has stopped running a hotel. It has stopped running a tug and barge business on the inland waterways. It "has been returning to private citizens activities traditionally theirs."

P: The Republican-led Congress passed a new housing program. It passed a new farm program--a program to "promote lasting farm prosperity in an America no longer at war." It extended social-security coverage to 10.2 million more Americans. It passed a huge tax-revision bill designed to eliminate long-standing inequities.

P: The Korean war has ended. Suez and Iran no longer are open sores. Yugoslavia and Italy have "settled their differences over Trieste." And just signed in London is "an agreement of momentous significance [that] will powerfully strengthen the defense of the West." Said Ike: "For the first time in 20 years, there is no active battlefield anywhere in the world."

The Future. What remains to be done? Ike named expanded foreign trade, improvements in the domestic economy, a new armed-forces reserve program, statehood for Hawaii, changes in the labor-management laws, and civil-rights advances.

"Now, my friends," he said, "a cold war of partisan politics between the Congress and the executive branch won't give us these goals. This brings up a political fact of life. You know perfectly well that you just can't have one car with two drivers at the steering wheel and expect to end up any place but in the ditch--especially when the drivers are set on going in different directions. You cannot have efficient Federal Government when the Congress wants to follow one philosophy of government and the executive branch another. In our system of government, progress is made when the leaders of the executive branch and the majority of Congress are members of the same political party. The unsurpassed record of the 83rd Congress is shining evidence of this truth."

These, said Ike, are the compelling reasons for the election of a Republican majority in Congress this fall.

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