THE STATES: A Time for Governors

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The sight of Dwight Eisenhower beaming and bowing in their midst was a momentous symbol for 42 governors gathered last week in Seattle for their 45th annual conference. Not in 15 years had a President of the United States visited them, and after the death of Robert Taft, the governors thought that Eisenhower had sufficient excuse to break his longstanding date. But to Ike's mind, the conference was an all-important rendezvous.

Immediately after the state funeral for Taft, the President picked up Ohio's Governor Frank Lausche (who was in Washington for the funeral) and Treasury Secretary George Humphrey, boarded his silver Constellation and took off for the Northwest. On the way. he managed a brief catnap in one of the plane's berths; ten hours and 2,507 miles later, when the big Connie came down through grey clouds at Boeing Field, Seattle, he looked fresh and chipper. That night at the governors' black-tie dinner. Ike unexpectedly turned up as just another guest to listen to an unimpressive speech by Humphrey on monetary policy; at 10:30 p.m. (2:30 a.m. by White House time) the President was still going strong.

Next morning, in a snappy tweed sport jacket and slacks, the President attended a plenary session of the conference, where he delivered a meandering, off-the-cuff address, which was at its best when he shared with the governors his strategic theories on Asia (see Foreign Relations). But Ike's effectiveness at Seattle was not in what he said; it was in his hearty salutation and his deep bow of respect to the governors.

"I'll probably accept every invitation you send me," he told them, "and I'll send you more." After he climbed back into his plane for the weary trip home, the governors settled down in a warm glow to talk shop.

Thirty-Dome Command. The real news of the conference was in the clearly evident new stature of the governors—both collectively and individually—in the affairs of the nation. A White House aide put his finger on it: "In the President's mind, there are three U.S. governing bodies: the Senate, the House and the governors'." As head of the Republican Party, Ike had another good reason to go to Seattle last week: under 30 statehouse domes, Republicans are in command.

Compared with the perilous G.O.P. working majority in Congress, they are a steady force indeed. They represent real strength. The President would never forget how 23 G.O.P. governors, at their conference in Houston last year just before the Republican Convention, endorsed his position on the contested delegations —a move which was instrumental in swinging the nomination his way. During the campaign, Ike leaned heavily on such individual governors as New Hampshire's Sherman Adams, Nebraska's Val Peterson and New York's Tom Dewey for his crucial decisions.