National Affairs: The High-School Debate

In a briefing session just before the presidential press conference last week, Press Secretary Jim Hagerty warned his boss that questions on partisan politics had been building up for days. Hagerty passed along samples that had come into his office, and Eisenhower roughly laid out his line of reply. A few moments later, relaxed and ready, the President took his place before 204 reporters in the old State Department treaty room.

The United Press's Merriman Smith cracked the first question. "Mr. President," said he, "the Democrats on Capitol Hill say that bipartisan support of certain portions of your program have been endangered by certain statements which have been made by members of the Administration—statements ranging from the fact that the Democrats were soft to ward subversives in the Government to labels of political sadism. The Democrats have asked or suggested that you stop the statements."

Program for Americans. Ike grinned slightly, stuck his hand in his pocket and answered. It was quite apparent, he thought, that he was not very much of a partisan. The times are too serious to indulge in partisanship to the extreme. He quite cheerfully admitted that there must be Democratic support for the enactment of certain parts of his program. But without meaning to be pontifical or stuffed shirt, he had tried desperately to draw up a program that seemed to him to be good for all Americans, which included Democrats, and it was on that basis that he appealed for Democratic help.

The New York Times's Anthony Le-viero asked if it was not "a kind of class warfare for Republican leaders to suggest that all Democrats ... are tinged with treason or that they are all security risks."* Replied Ike: He has seen no such statements, but if any such statements were made, he would consider it not only completely untrue but very unwise—even from a political partisan standpoint. Later, in answer to another question, he added that he believed that the ordinary American was capable of deciding what was temperate and just.

Would the President "counsel officials of the executive branch . . . not to en gage in extreme partisanship?" That is correct, said Ike. Would that include the chairman (New York's Len Hall) of the Republican National Committee? Yes, said the President, it would.

Be Kind to Democrats. Back at the White House, Ike issued no further reprimands or "cease and desist" orders to his White House staff, and there were signs that the loudest G.O.P. talkers would keep on talking. Attorney General Herbert Brownell got a big laugh in Boston by flipping: "If this weren't be-kind-to-Democrats week, I might talk about Harry Dexter White." In San Mateo, Calif., Joe McCarthy said he had "no plans for a major change in my line of speeches." (The line: the nation has just survived "20 years of treason.") And in Jeffersonville, Indiana's Bill Jenner went even further beyond the limit. He said that "the Fair Dealers" did not intend U.S. troops to win a victory in Korea. "Then," said Jenner in a prepared speech, "[they] stooped to the ultimate depths—they gave away the victory our men had won with their blood." This the New York Times aptly characterized as "slander straight from the gutter."