Party Pulse Beats

Publicly, Republican National Chairman Leonard Hall was brimming over with confidence. "Our campaign plans and strategy remain unchanged," cried he to a Bangor, Me. audience last week. "We're the best shape we've been in for 25 years. Privately, Hall was mournful. Said he to a friend: "I'm in the worst spot in the world." Actually, the Republican prognosis was neither as hopeful nor as hopeless as Len Hall, in his public and private moods, made out: after a week marked by taking new political pulses, it seemed clear that the G.O.P. had a good fighting chance to recover from Dwight Eisenhower's illness in time for the 1956 elections.

One encouraging sign was the absence of panic among Republican politicians. Not until two days after the announcement of the President's heart attack did the first long-distance call from a high-level Republican come into GOP national headquarters. The caller was told to carry on with his organizational work. The only perceptible hitches in the Republican get-along were a slight slowdown in the pace of the 101-member national commitee staff and the postponement of a $100-a-plate party dinner in Oklahoma City.

"Under No Circumstances." Among the most striking evidences of a feet-on-the-ground Republican posture was the general willingness to face reality The merest handful of Republican leaders still clung to the idea that Dwight Eisenhower might run again for President. Said Louisiana's National Committeeman John Minor Wisdom: "I would rather see a sick Eisenhower than a well Democrat in the White House." Crooned Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen: "'Duty' is the shiny iridescent word the President learned at West Point. The President knows and will know where his duty lies." To Ev Dirksen, Ike's duty clearly lies at the head of the ticket on which Dirksen will be running for reelection. But the vast majority of Republican leaders seemed to agree with Vermont National Committeeman Edward Janeway, who said that "under no circumstances" should Eisenhower run again, and Oregon State Chairman Wendell Wyatt, who said: "We would not want to jeopardize his later years." Having already accepted in their own minds the probability that Ike will not be a candidate, the Republicans were able to turn their attentions to another question: Who will run? Last week the Wall Street Journal queried the 21 Republican governors and all the G.O.P. state chairmen about who they thought would be their party's strongest candidate. The poll turned up some fascinating answers.

Automatic Solution." Leading the list was Vice President Richard Nixon. Said Wisconsin State Chairman Philip G. Kuehn: "Nixon has the very attributes Mr. Eisenhower has said the party needs: intelligence, youth, and vigor." Said Nevada State Chairman Thomas A. Smith: "Nixon can bring to the presidency the same basic principles of honesty and efficiency in government and will continue in other matters what President Eisenhower has so ably started." Wyoming's Governor Milward L. Simpson added a strong endorsement of Nixon. One state chairman asking that his name not be used, thought that President Eisenhower should resign so as to give Nixon a chance to prove himself in the presidency, thereby "automatically solving G.O.P. problems at [the] coming conventions."

Mentioned with remarkable frequency was Pennsylvania State University President Milton S. Eisenhower, the President's brother. Said Nevada Governor Charles Russell: "Milton Eisenhower is ie of the nation's outstanding men and a personal confidant of the President who would carry the Eisenhower name into the 1956 election." Oregon's State Chairman Wendell Wyatt put Milton Eisenhower at the top of a list that included Presidential Assistant Harold Stassen, Nixon Chief Justice Earl Warren and Paul Hoffman.

Maryland's Governor Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin named Milton Eisenhower Warren, former New York Governed Thomas E. Dewey and General Alfred M. Gruenther. Wisconsin's Governor Walter J. Kohler cited Milton Eisenhower along with Nixon and Treasury Secretary George Humphrey.

"Damn Sure." Earl Warren, despite his April avowal that he would not accept a nomination, figured strongly in the plans of many Republicans, who recalled that a Gallup poll last April showed Warren running neck and neck with Adlai Stevenson ma test of voter popularity. It was carefully noted, especially by those who like him least, that Manhattan Lawyer Tom Dewey was off on a world tour during which, he said, he would discuss social economic and political questions with foreign leaders.

Harold Stassen, whose political stock has been on the downgrade ever since he got trounced by Dewey in the 1948 Oregon presidential primary, was another whose name was on many Republican lips last week. Among favorite-son possibilities whose chances were taken seriously by some Republicans were Massachusetts Governor Christian Herter and Washington's Governor Arthur Langlie, who, when told that he had been mentioned, said; "If they're thinking about me, it won't be for long. I know politics too well for that."

One of the few who offered no opinions about 1956 Republican possibilities was the man who will have the most to say about them: President Eisenhower himself. But there was no doubt that he would take a part in selecting the nominee. Early in the summer he invited a small group Congressmen to the White House for lunch and told them: "I don't know whether or not I am going to run, but this I do know--I will want to be damn sure that whoever does run will be a man whose views are consonant with the way I think about things."

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