The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1952-10-09
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Political Pressure

you have to know something about
the pressures brought on both men
by friends and advisers.
Among Eisenhower's friends,
some considered the statement is
sued by Taft after the breakfast to
be abject surrender by the victor
at Chicago to the man he defeated
at Chicago. That was why Sen.
Wayne Morse of Oregon immedi-
ately scratched his name off the
Ike list.
Some of these friends feel that
never before has a candidate been
so Inundated in public as when
Taft told newsmen he had written
the Joint" 7-page statement in
Cincinnati before he came to the
breakfast. At least, they say he
might have preserved the fiction
that the two had worked it out to-
gether.
Just a few weeks ago, they point
out, Eisenhower walked out of the
! Chicago convention the biggest
\ man in America, considered a
sure bet to win. Today, two months
after Chicago, he has to accept
policy dictated by the man he de-
feated.
However, others of ke's friends
point to the terrific pressures he
was under. In Massachusetts,, he
knew that Taft supporters were so
bitter that Senator Lodge hadn't
dared feature in his campaign lit
|. erature the fact that he was once
Ike's campaign manager. In Indi-
ana, state COP chairman Gale
Holder, strong Taft supporter, re-
ported that many of his cohorts
were dragging their feet.
In Cleveland, Ike personally
found how tough it was to dent the
Taft forces when he spoke at a
private dinner to try to pry open
Taft pocketbooks. Taft money
men say that Wall Street nomi-
mated Eisenhower, so Wall Street
can now finance him.
And what made things worse
was when Congressman George
Bender, a Taft supporter, was
barred from the dining room by
State Chairman Ray Bliss. Seeth-
ing mad, Bender walked out.
Speakers Sabotage
In Washington, two Taft men
Sen. Karl Mundt of South Dakota
and Congressman Charley Halleck
of Indiana-are in charge of the
speakers bureau. And when Ike
supporter Sen. Leverett Saltonstan
of Massachusetts offered to make
some speeches in his home state,
Massachusetts,, nothing happened.
For four weeks he wasn't called
on. Finally, when he complained
at the inactivity, Taftite Halleck
assigned Saltonstall to speak in
Indiana, Illinois and Ohio-three
bedrock Taft states where a man
of Saltonstall's political background
would be valueless.
Again, when KEENAN, Sen. George
Aiken of Vermont volunteered to
speak, he wasn't given a single
engagement in New England where
he would be most effective.
Thus, with the COP split even
worse than generally suspected,
Eisenhower yielded to midroad adj
visers who said he had to heal the
Taft breach. 6
Two of these advisers-Sens.
Frank Carlson of Kansas and Alex
Smith of New Jersey-arranged
the breakfast preliminaries. Smith,
vacationing in Canada, spent part
of a month urging Taft to get
intellectually into the campaign,
argued that Taft and Ike would be
an unbeatable team: Ike on for
eign policy, Taft on domestic IS
sues.
Taft, at first, baked, said his
wing of the party was opposed to
Dewey control, would be fatty op-
posed to having Dewey in the
cabinet.
Taft's Statement
When Taft got to New York the
night before the breakfast, he
handed Senator Carlson a copy of
the now-famous Joint. statement.
In a corner was written in green
ink: For Senator Carlson. To be
given only to General Eisen-
hover"
However, Carlson did not give
the statement to Eisenhower the
night before, as Taft intended. He
kept it-presumably because he
feared Ike might get sore, and that
it was better for the two men to get
acquainted personally before hag-
Cling over legal and political
phraseology.
Next morning, at breakfast, Taft
broke the ice with: 81 want to con-
graduate you for taking off the
gloves" i
He added that It would be fatal
to try to coast through this cam
paign'' as Dewey did in 1948. Then,