Sell the Sizzle

For two decades a supersalesman named Elmer Wheeler has made a handsome living advising U.S. businessmen: "Don't sell the steak—sell the sizzle!" This week, with the congressional elections of 1954 just a week away, there were clear indications that the Republican Party had paid too little attention to that sales formula.

A striking example showed up baldly in the "major issue" of the campaign. Still riding the ghost of the "Hoover Depression," Democrats have made much of unemployment in the U.S. in 1954. It is an economic fact that the Eisenhower Administration has been more successful than the Roosevelt or Truman Administrations ever were in maintaining, without controls, a high level of employment and steadying the U.S. economy in time of peace. But it is a political fact that the Republican Party is not getting much if any credit for this achievement.

In January 1939, after six years of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, there were 11,984,000 unemployed in a total U.S. work force of 55 million. Nevertheless, F.D.R., a great exponent of sizzle salesmanship, claimed (and got from millions of voters) credit for reducing unemployment. In 1944, when unemployment reached a record low of 440,000, there were nearly 12 million men in the armed forces. By early 1950, with no war to hop up the economy, the number of unemployed under Harry Truman's Administration had climbed back to nearly 4,700,000. This month, in a work force of 65 million, the number of unemployed is 3,000,000. Few economists believe that the U.S. (or any other nation) can maintain "full employment"—i.e., an unemployment figure below 2,000,000 or 3% of the labor force—without chronic inflation or war or severe regimentation of business and labor.

The campaign season's major speech on the economy was delivered last week by Treasury Secretary George Humphrey before a Manhattan dinner of the Investment Bankers Association—not necessarily the best possible forum from the viewpoint of influencing voters. Humphrey had an impressive array of economic facts; he made the point that the Eisenhower Administration has succeeded—where the Truman Administration faile—in stabilizing the U.S. dollar. But the Secretary's presentation had a dry, uninspiring tone; his speech was briefly reported on the financial pages.

Organized & Dull. In defense and foreign policy there is a similar contrast between the Republican product and the Republican sales pitch. A recent Gallup poll shows that 64% of U.S. voters feel that the defense position of the U.S. is better now than it was under the Truman Administration. The Republican campaign has done little to capitalize on this highly favorable voter conclusion.