National Affairs: Beyond Politics

Swinging east, then south across the land last week in the waning warmness of Indian summer, Richard Nixon generated a waxing optimism. Alerted before his trip against meager crowds, the Vice President found audiences as fat in doubtful Buffalo as in secure Fort Wayne, Ind. Warned against hoots and hecklers, he heard in 9,000 miles three small choruses of boos. Of these, one was an impartial impoliteness that Yale undergrads had also extended to Adlai Stevenson (TIME, Oct. 15).

Swinging through Ohio to aid Incumbent Senator George Bender, through Indiana, New York and New England, the Vice President moved eventually into Manhattan to be principal speaker at Francis Cardinal Spellman's annual dinner honoring the memory of Al Smith. There Nixon sailed beyond politics to statesmanship, predicted to a banqueting 2,500: "Most of us here will live to see the day when American boys and girls shall sit, side by side, at any school-public or private-with no regard paid to the color of their skin. Segregation, discrimination and prejudice have no place in America, and I can report to you tonight that men of good will in all sections of our land are working with complete devotion toward the day when the American ideal of equality of opportunity is a reality for all of our people."

In Baltimore one night later the Vice President returned angrily to the political fray, renewed attacks on Adlai Stevenson. At week's end, after eleven days and 14 states, Nixon arrived in Washington for 48 hours' rest before a final campaign assignment: one more sweep of the U.S. lasting right down to Election Day.