Opposites in Illinois

Illinois ranks as a key state in U.S. politics by virtue of its size (pop. 8,712,176, the nation's fourth largest), its strategic location in the heart of the Midwest, and its recent history as the bitterly disputed battleground of a strongly liberal Democratic Party and a strongly conservative Republican Party. It is a state in which such political disparities as Adlai Stevenson and Colonel Robert McCormick exert great influence. Its present U.S. Senators --Democrat Paul Douglas and Republican Everett McKinley Dirksen--stand at extreme political poles, representing almost equal segments of Illinois opinion. This year Illinois voters again have the clear sort of choice they seem to demand: Incumbent Paul Douglas is in the fight of his life against Republican Joseph Meek, for almost 20 years a retail merchants' lobbyist. Rarely, even in Illinois, have two candidates differed so greatly, both politically and personally--and nowhere are these differences so evident as in the day-by-day campaign styles of Paul Douglas and Joe Meek.

Joe v. the Perfesser. At 5 o'clock one morning last week, Joe Meek bounded out of bed, put on his glasses, and sat down to write his own speeches for a 15-hour campaign day. Finished with that, he gulped his breakfast and took off in a battered station wagon on a tour of four central Illinois county seats. His entourage consisted of a driver and a newsman. In Lincoln,* Meek worked both sides of the street, entering bars, shops, hotel lobbies, and every place else with an unlocked door. To all, he carried the same friendly, beaming message: "I'm Joe Meek and I'm doing a little politicking."

In Lincoln's white-frame Recreation Hall, Joe manfully downed his ham, scalloped potatoes and Jello salad. Then he got up to deliver an oration, heavily larded, as usual, with references to Paul Douglas, onetime faculty member at the University of Chicago, as "The Perfesser from the Midway" and the "Senior Socialist Senator from Illinois."

"I've seen three wars under Democrat ic regimes,'' said Meek. "I've seen the Democrats impose an income tax, even though they were warned that the power to tax is the power to destroy. I've seen three New Deal Presidents trying to wreck the nation. I've seen Mr. Wilson.

Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Truman shedding the blood of American boys. I don't blame Mr. Wilson as much as the other two--at least he didn't work with Communist Russia. I'm against price controls that have no real purpose. I don't want American boys to die on foreign battlefields. I'm very fond of this tax-reform program which my opponent, the Medicine Man from the Midway, in true demagogic fashion, says is a disaster for the country. I believe in collective bargaining. I want to slice foreign handouts. I'm for our flexible farm program, which is not going to hurt the farmer. If all this makes me an old fogy, that's O.K. with me."

After Lincoln, Meek headed at 75 m.p.h. to Paxton, thence to Bloomington and finally to Pontiac, where he spoke that night in a grade-school gymnasium. When his speech was over, he hustled outside. There, with the moonbeams filtering down through the elms, he stood for nearly an hour; in that time he shook some 470 hands. To one man he commented: "What a nice sweater." Spotting a G.O.P. precinct worker, he said: "You're doing a grand job." A middle-aged woman got a "You sure look good tonight, ma'am," and a toothless oldster got a "Hi, young fella." A man asked: "They treating you rough, Joe?" Replied Meek: "No, I'm just punch-drunk." When he saw a married couple departing, he said to the wife: "Won't he stay for the dance? Make the old fossil take you." The pair smiled, and kept going--and so did Joe Meek. His hopes for defeating Douglas rest largely on his leaving no Illinois hand unshaken.

Douglas v. Rip van Winkle. In Room 915 of Peoria's Pere Marquette Hotel, Paul Douglas arose at 8 a.m. after eight hours' sleep. He did some paper work, looked over a speech, then drove out to deliver it to the Illinois State Federation of Labor at the Peoria armory. As he has for nearly two years, he bore down heavily on the Illinois economic situation.

"It doesn't take a man with a micro scope or a Geiger counter to find the signs of economic slack in Illinois," said Douglas. "I have talked with auto workers in

Decatur, machinists in Rockford, farm machinery workers in Rock Island, railroaders in Moline, miners in West Frankfort, Caterpillar workers in Peoria, tank builders in Alton, the farmers in the drought area, auto dealers, grocers and other merchants across the state . . . The figures of these men and women of Illinois whom I have seen don't lie when they say we are in economic difficulties, and we had better do something about it ... To hear the Republicans' political orators constantly berating those of us who want to look the economic facts in the face as prophets of doom and gloom, you might think the welfare of the nation is for them merely a jolly game of blindman's buff."

Douglas continued his practice of not referring to Joe Meek by name; instead, he calls his opponent "the Republican Rip van Winkle who has slept 20 years in Lobbyland," and "a man who was dragged screaming into the 20th century."

The Prophet. That afternoon, Douglas ate alone in his hotel room, then walked half a block to the place of his next meeting. On the sidewalk outside, a big wooden barrel, its top piled with hard crackers, set the motif. To the woman who had organized the "cracker-barrel discussion," Douglas smiled and paid a tribute that would have merely puzzled Joe Meek. Said he: "You're a great catalyst." An elderly man asked a question about pensions. Said Douglas: "Pensions should be actuarial, based on, say, retirement at 65. Thus, if you work until 68, the pension should be higher, or less if you retire at 62." Questioned about federal hospital grants, Douglas replied: "Hospital construction costs are crippling us; we must somehow get a much lower construction cost per foot." He had no ready answer for the psychiatrist who told him: "Three of the six psychiatrists in Peoria are on the Citizens for Douglas Committee, and we can vouch fully for your emotional stability."

Douglas ended his day by recording a radio interview, walking eight blocks to visit a political supporter who runs a bar (and wasn't there), and making a television appearance in which he again stressed the economic issue.

If Douglas defeats Joe Meek--and, as of last week, he was a slight favorite in the close race--he can thank his success in establishing himself as the leading U.S. prophet of recession and depression. Wrote Douglas, in a syndicated newspaper column last week: "All told, there are 280,000 people reported out of a job in Illinois . . . The Democratic Party has shown that it has a program to produce an evergrowing prosperity." Had it? Douglas did not mention that in the wartime year 1951-52, under President Truman and Governor Stevenson, there were 277,000 unemployment-compensation beneficiaries in Illinois. And in 1948-49, the last peacetime year under the Democratic Administration, the number was 319,000.

* Named for sometime Railroad Lobbyist Abe Lincoln, who was attorney for the three men who founded the town. Lincoln himself advised against naming the town after him because "I never knew anything named Lincoln that amounted to much." Later he christened the town by ceremoniously dripping watermelon juice on the ground.

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