The Party Ailment

For six weeks, Dwight Eisenhower had been soaking up the sun in Palm Desert, Calif., playing golf, working on his memoirs, and keeping his own counsel. Then, last week, he flew into Los Angeles for a round of speechmaking that proved he still had the old political magic: he stopped traffic for blocks around, flashed the grin at supporters wearing buttons that proclaimed, "I Miss Ike." packed the Hollywood Palladium for a speech at the annual Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce banquet, and drew nearly 100 to hear him talk at a Republican fund-raising dinner--at $500 a plate.

But Ike's main message was delivered over closed-circuit television linking G.O.P. dinners in 50 cities, and it was something of a switch. During his eight years as President, he frequently had been criticized for relying almost exclusively on his personal appeal, at the expense of party organization. Now his blunt advice to Republicans was: Get to work on organization.

Eisenhower reviewed for Republicans a discouraging party record: "In the last eight national elections, beginning in 1932, Republicans have won the presidency but twice. During all that 30-year period, we have had control of Congress only four years. In 1930, there were 30 Republican Governors in 48 states; now we have 16 in 50. Today in the House of Representatives we are outnumbered three to two and in the Senate two to one. Only 14 out of the 41 big cities of the nation produced Republican majorities in 1960."

Hard Sell. What ails the Republicans, said Eisenhower, is no lack of a solid philosophy but a weakness in tactics. "Our story, good though it is, has not been getting across. The conclusion would seem to be that our marketing system is not good enough; a defect that must be quickly eliminated.

"Every precinct, every block and every apartment house should have its own dedicated Republican workers for sound government, and each such worker must be properly joined with his next higher superior until the entire party can operate as a unit. We need intelligent, personable, dedicated and energetic leaders. From one election to the next, each of us must help to inform and to recruit and on every election day make certain that all Republicans and all the people that we have reached and educated will be on hand to cast their votes."

Little Details. Referring to divisions between the party's moderate and conservative wings, Eisenhower said: "The little details of doctrine that may seem to divide us are not nearly as important as the basic principles that unite us. We should discard such shopworn and meaningless terms as 'liberal' and 'conservative,' one reason being that I have never yet found anyone who could convincingly explain his own definition of these political classifications. "For the Republican Party, 1964 has, of course, a great importance. But it is two years away. 1962 is here--with much work to be done. We are like an army that, to launch a great and effective attack, must fight first for its jump-off line. Our jump-off line is resounding victory in '62--after which we'll be all set for victory in the big campaign of '64."

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