The Ev Show

"Every man must change his views as times and events change." says Senate, Minority Leader Everett McKinley Dirksen, invoking the golden tones that make him one of the few orators left on Capitol Hill who can still entice a quorum into, the press gallery. In more than a quarter of a century in the House and Senate, Dirksen has changed his position from time to time on such vital matters as foreign policy, foreign aid. military matters and agricultural legislation. But where less nimble politicians would have tripped. Ev Dirksen, at 66, is soft-shoeing his way across the New Frontier with greater success than ever. His qualities of flexibility, political shrewdness, willingness to com promise, and above all the realization that times and events do change, have made him the most effective Senate Republican leader in years.

Upset. Dirksen comes up for re-election this November. Mesmerized by Dirksen's rhetoric, his disheveled thatch of white hair and his prominence on the na tional scene, Illinois voters have already sent him to the Senate twice (he spent 16 years in the House). This year Dirksen will face seven-term Democratic Congressman Sidney Yates, 52, an energetic liberal picked by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's powerful political machine.

Last week, in Illinois' primary elections, the results indicated that Dirksen will be a hard man to beat. While Dirksen ran up a 7-to-1 plurality (totaling 700,000 votes) against his token G.O.P. opponent, Democrat Yates ran into unexpected trouble. Not only did his "token" opponent, a perennial also-ran named Lar Daly, compile 200,000 votes, but also the Daley machine, on which Yates's chances in November depend, was handed a stunning bond issue defeat. In a tax-time tantrum, more than 45% of Chicago's voters turned out to reject $66 million worth of proposed bonds for urban renewal, sewers and the like; Mayor Daley had predicted that the bond issues would pass by at least 2½ to 1.

Out-photoed. Little known even after seven terms in Congress, Yates faces the hard task of competing with Dirksen for exposure. Last week he rushed to Washington to have his picture taken with President Kennedy—only to be out-photoed by Dirksen, who was seen with the President at a congressional party and a ball game. Yates has contrasted his record of 97% support of Kennedy with Dirksen's 27%—but such statistics are meaningless, and Dirksen is vastly appreciated by the White House as a highly responsible, often cooperative member of the loyal opposition. Last fortnight, for example, Dirksen dramatically and successfully intervened against fellow Republicans on behalf of the President's United Nations bond issue proposals. Cried Ev: "I haven't forfeited my faith in John Fitzgerald Kennedy."