On to Chicago

Into Augusta, Ga. by chartered airplane last week flew a ten-man delegation from the Republican National Committee for a conclave about as suspenseful as an American League pennant race. At the Augusta National Golf Club the travelers were welcomed by a tanning and smiling Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower, sat down for lunch with the President in the whitebrick, four-pillared Mamie's Cabin near Augusta's tenth fairway. Over lunch the group got down to business. Connecticut's Meade Alcorn was retiring as national chairman (TIME, April 13), Kentucky's Senator Thruston B. Morton had been mentioned to succeed him. Was the President agreeable? Ike. who had hand-picked Morton five weeks earlier, went along with custom, announced that he would be very pleased indeed. Added he in an uncustomary tribute to Meade Alcorn: "I sure did like that guy, and it made me so mad tohave to lose him."

Returning to Washington, the delegation carried Ike's word to a meeting of the full committee. By acclamation, tall, trim (6 ft. 2 in., 185 Ibs.) Thruston Morton, 51, was elected, summoned to make his maiden speech. Said the new boss from the Bluegrass: "In 1960 we are going to have proven champions carrying our banner. We are going to have proven stake winners. There'll be no selling platers in our barn."

Next, Old Guardsman Barry Goldwater, though he had been less than enthusiastic about having Good Ikeman Morton as national chairman, took the microphone to wish him well and urge him to steer the Republican Party to the right. As for the Democrats, said Goldwater, "there is no Democratic Party. There is a shell that has been crawled into by labor, led by that redhead from Detroit named Reuther. We've got to stop being nice to them. We've called them liberals. They aren't liberals they are radicals."

Before they headed for home, the Republican committeemen considered green-backed offers from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and Miami, all vying to be the 1960 convention city. For the 14th time in the party's history, they chose Chicago (beginning July 25) because: 1) 1960 is the. 100th anniversary of the Chicago convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln, 2) Chicago's central location, hotel facilities and guaranty ($400,000) were better than any other offer.