THE CAMPAIGN IS BORN

NEW YORK TIMES:

FOR the first time in half a century the Republican party has had an opportunity—and has accepted it—to renominate for a second term a President who has led his party forward toward new goals. The significant fact about President Eisenhower's nomination in 1952 was that it marked at least temporarily the ascendancy of the liberal wing of the Republican party. His influence has been thrown consistently on the side of a basic reform of the principles of Republican philosophy. He has sought, and with some success, to lead his party toward new accomplishments in the fields of public housing, health and education. He has sought, and with some success, to create through the instrumentality of the Republican party an atmosphere of national confidence and a spirit of goodwill transcending sectional and party lines.

All this constitutes a sharp break with the past and something of a revolution in Republican thinking and Republican action. The remaking of the party is not complete. Possibly it could not have been made complete in the short span of four years. But it is a real transformation nonetheless, and an achievement which in the long run of history seems certain to stand as the great contribution made by Dwight Eisenhower to his party and his country.

Columnist MARQUIS CHILDS:

THE line of attack which the Democrats mean to push hardest is that the Old Guard of the Republican Party took over in San Francisco to insure that Richard M. Nixon again would be Vice President and their skillful agent at the center of government in the four years to come.

It is much too early to say whether this will be effective in winning the independent middle-ground vote which went in large numbers for the Eisenhower-Nixon ticket four years ago. But to call the Republican managers the "Old Guard," is a major error.

Those in the dominant group in the party today have very little in common with the caricature of the past. Secretary of the Treasury George Humphrey, Attorney General Brownell, Presidential Assistant Sherman Adams, Postmaster General Summerfield. Thomas E. Dewey—these men have about as much resemblance to the Old Guard as an old-time minstrel show has to a slick Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.

They have many of the same objectives, since basically they believe in giving business a free hand. But they know that they cannot turn back the clock. The President has unbounded admiration for these men, most of them from small towns, and modest background, who have made their way to the top. It would be a great mistake to underestimate the powers and the capacity of these new political managers.

SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER: