Changing Campaign

The kind of U.S. that the Democrats were dreaming about just a year ago could hardly have voted any other way than Democratic in the 1958 elections. It was a U.S. of recession, rising unemployment, farm poverty, militant unionism, weakened defenses--with executive decisions dominated by Congress and civil rights questions compromised smoothly in the Lyndon Johnson manner. But the big news of politics as the fall campaign opens is that the U.S. of autumn 1958 is not quite the land of Democratic dreams. Items:

Resurgent Recovery. Prosperity is rising, unemployment is dropping, and the Republicans have gained points because they have refused to push the panic button on emergency tax cuts and all-out Government spending, stand firm on the doctrine that a sound economy would lead to a solid return to prosperity.

Farm Prices. Thanks to lean years, the Democrats have made serious inroads into the state houses and congressional districts of the traditionally Republican Midwest. But 1958 has blessed farmers with bounteous crops--and hiked farm income 22% above last year. Agriculture Secretary

Ezra Taft Benson, once a Republican hairshirt, is now generally regarded as a true prophet because he has consistently tried to bring some sense to the chaotic farm-subsidy program.

Foreign Policy. To the surprise of the doom criers who predicted Communist advances on every front, the Eisenhower Administration has won incalculable prestige for the U.S.--and domestic support from all political creeds--by sending troops to stop trouble in Lebanon and sending ships and planes in answer to Chinese Communist threats in the Far East.

Defense Posture. Since Sputnik, the U.S. has placed four satellites of its own in space, sent two atom-powered submarines under the North Pole--unmistakable evidence that the nation is technologically equipped to counter the pressures and progress of Soviet Russia.

Labor. Long the handmaiden of the Democratic Party, organized labor has suffered its worst shame in decades at the hands of the Senate's McClellan laborrackets investigating committee. The pitiless expose of labor corruption by Democrat John McClellan has revolted the nation and emboldened Republicans to make labor reform a campaign issue. Last week the Denver County Republican leaders publicly endorsed a right-to-work constitutional amendment--a maneuver calculated to lure some of the state's 200,000 independent voters. Congressional failure to pass the Kennedy-Ives labor-reform bill will be laid essentially to the Democrats in a Democrat-controlled Congress.

Congressional Leadership. Far from knuckling under to Democratic congressional leaders, President Eisenhower demanded, fought for and won important legislation--notably on foreign aid, education, reciprocal trade and defense reorganization--from the 88th Congress.

Democratic politicians have been quietly but furiously shifting positions as they detected the new trends (TIME, Aug. 25). Last week Pollster George Gallup reported that a tide shift had come: for the first time since 1956, Republican fortunes are on the rise. The percentage of voters who want a Republican Congress has shifted from a low of 42% last May to 44%. The shift is only a bare 2%, and it shows that the Republicans have a long way to go. But it marks unmistakably the public awareness that conditions have changed, promises that the 1958 election can still be hard fought to a close finish.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.