National Affairs: Why Not Better?

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In Michigan last week, nearly 100,000 people turned out to see Eisenhower as he whistlestopped across the state.

Contributing mightily to the general excitement and confusion was the erratic behaviour of the Eisenhower train. At Saginaw, Ike had barely opened his mouth to say "Ladies & gentlemen . . ." when the engineer sent the Eisenhower train rolling inexorably away from the assembled crowd. At Lapeer, the next stop, the train again pulled out before Ike could speak, then halted some distance off, where Ike and Mamie began to sign autographs. As the train started up for the second time, Ike caught Mamie in the act of handing a pen down to an autograph-seeker and cried out in anguish: "No, no, Mamie. That's my pen."

In Illinois, after a stop-off in Springfield, where he expressed thanks to Governor Stevenson for giving state employees time off to hear him, Ike moved on to Peoria to make one of his most effective campaign speeches. "The Administration answer to every question raised in this campaign," said he, ". . . is 'you never had it so good . . .' Tonight I want to ask you another question. Why shouldn't we have it better?" A Republican administration, he went on, would make things better by 1) fighting inflation, 2) reducing Government expenditures (and eventually taxes) and 3) encouraging new industrial development.

At Peoria, the Eisenhower train was joined by Wisconsin's Senator Joe McCarthy, a man whom Ike does not admire, but whom he recognizes as the symbol of a deep sense of uneasiness among U.S. voters. As the train rolled across Wisconsin, McCarthy was much in evidence. At Green Bay, he bobbed onto the train platform to receive the cheers of the crowd, which here, as at some other Wisconsin stops, gave the Senator more applause than it gave Eisenhower himself. As Ike began to speak, McCarthy, who knew what was coming from a talk with Ike the previous evening, ducked back into the train. Said Ike: "The purposes that [McCarthy] and I have of ridding the Government of the incompetents, the dishonest and, above all, the subversive and disloyal are one & the same. Our differences, therefore, have nothing to do with the end result that we are seeking. The differences apply to method."

As the Eisenhower party left its train at Milwaukee, Joe McCarthy gave reporters his opinion on Ike's performance in Wisconsin. Said he: "I am not displeased with the treatment. I thought General Eisenhower handled the situation pretty well." The Senator clearly was displeased with the fact that he had been assigned a seat in the sixth car in Ike's Milwaukee motorcade. Ignoring the assignment, McCarthy strode purposefully up to the car directly behind Eisenhower's and shouldered his way into it.

At the Milwaukee Arena, McCarthy introduced Ike as "a great American who'll make a great President." From the crowd came a shout of applause which grew ever louder as McCarthy added, "But I want to tell you that I will continue to call them as I see them, regardless of who happens to be President." Then Ike arose to deliver his speech on Communists in Government (see above), a speech he had deliberately chosen to make on McCarthy's home grounds.