Clear Aims

In a yellow Lincoln convertible, at the head of a 17-car motorcade, Ike and Mamie drove to the convention hall through Chicago's grey and bedraggled warehouse and stockyards district. Ike had been ordered not to stand in his car, because the streets were bumpy, but when he spotted a small boy jumping up & down on the curb, trying to see him, the general stood up and waved. When the car bumped across some trolley tracks, Ike was almost thrown, but Mamie reached up and supported him. TV cameras stationed along the way, together with mobile camera units, showed Ike's progress to the amphitheater, followed him through the hall's portals and on to the rostrum.

In the floodlighted group around the speakers' platform, an aisle opened and the crowd saw Presidential Nominee Dwight Eisenhower, square-shouldered, striding briskly. The scattered cheering of the crowd rose to a roar, and through it sounded the bouncing blasts of the field-artillery march--The Caisson Song. Eisenhower, trim in a blue suit, was at the microphone waving and smiling, with Mamie Eisenhower at his side. The music changed to Dixie, Mamie threw a kiss to the crowd, and the crowd began to chant "We want Ike." Chairman Martin waited for a few minutes, then stepped to the microphone. "If you'll keep quiet," he shouted, grinning, "I'll give him to you." The cheering died down, the band stopped playing, and Eisenhower began to speak.

Fighting Road. Tense at first, he soon relaxed and in his first visit to any political convention hall, delivered the best speech of his brief political career. Said he: "I know something of the solemn responsibility of leading a crusade. I have led one . . . Mindful of its burdens and of its decisive importance, I accept your summons. I will lead this crusade.

"Our aims," he said firmly, "are clear: to sweep from office an Administration which has fastened on every one of us the wastefulness, the arrogance and corruption in high places, the heavy burdens and the anxieties which are the bitter fruit of a party too long in power."

The crowd roared. Then Ike continued: "Much more than this, it is our aim to give to our country a program of progressive policies drawn from our finest Republican traditions; to unite us wherever we have been divided; to strengthen freedom wherever among any group it has been weakened; to build a sure foundation for sound prosperity for all here at home, and for a just and sure peace throughout our world . . . The road that leads to Nov. 4 is a fighting road. In that fight I will keep nothing in reserve."

Destiny's Moment. Then he proved again the famed Eisenhower ability for fostering harmony. "Since this morning I have had helpful and heart-warming talks with Senator Taft, Governor Warren and Governor Stassen. I wanted them to know, as I want you now to know, that in the hard fight ahead we will work intimately together . . .

"We are now at a moment in history when, under God, this nation of ours has become the mightiest temporal power and the mightiest spiritual force on earth. The destiny of mankind--the making of a world that will be fit for our children to live in--hangs in the balance . . .

"Wherever I am, I will end each day of this coming campaign thinking of millions of American homes, large and small; of fathers and mothers working and sacrificing to make sure that their children are well cared for, free from fear, full of good hope for the future, proud citizens of a country that will stand among the nations as the leader of a peaceful and prosperous world.

"Ladies and gentlemen, my dear friends who have heaped upon me such honors, it is more than a nomination I accept today. It is a dedication to the shining promise of tomorrow. As together we face that tomorrow, I beseech the prayers of all our people and the blessing and guidance of Almighty God." It was an adept as well as a heartfelt speech, opening on exactly the right note Eisenhower's campaign as the Republican nominee.

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