Gains Below the Line

In the 1952 presidential election,Dwight Eisenhower polled 48.9% of the major party vote cast in the Democratic "Solid South." Since then, the Administration has been responsible for--among other Negro-rights measures--pushing desegregation in the armed forces, integrating the District of Columbia schools, backing the Negro plaintiffs in the cases that brought the basic Supreme Court school desegregation decision of May 1954. In view of that performance, and with the civil rights issue in an inflammatory stage, how does Ike stand below the Mason-Dixon line now?

Last week the Gallup poll announced a remarkable answer to that question. Pitting Eisenhower against Stevenson in 13 Southern states,* Gallup found that 56% like Ike. 40% are for Stevenson and 4% are undecided. Eisenhower's percentage was a big gain over his vote in 1952. It was also well above the biggest popular vote that a G.O.P. candidate for President ever got in the South: Herbert Hoover's 52% over Al Smith in 1928.

* Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina. Georgia. Florida, Alabama, Kentucky. Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

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