Evening star., 1954-08-29
Mitchell's 5 Ugly Smear
Of President Resented

svssSNs ~ OSsy SttsGOt
Of President Resented
Writer ScoIds choirmon
For Outrageous choress'
By Frunk Z. Kent
The serenity Of Gen. Eisenhower
under attack Is one Of his outstanding
characteristics and assets. "A fighting
man by profession. whose personal
courage Is undisputed. he keeps his
temper under great provocation and
as President avoids personal lights ana
brawls as interfering with more I'M
portant things. This was well illustrated
recently when Chairman Stephen
A. Mitchell Of the Democratic National
Committee quite viciously and. unsus-
tanned by the facts. assailed the per-
Sonal integrity Of the President and
that Of his friend, the famous golfer,
Bobby Jones.
Gen. Ike staunchly defended his
friend at q press conference but de-
clined altogether TO beat his breast or
make any defense Of himself except to
available to the reporters. Az result
Mr.. Mitchell's ugly smear reacted on
himself and benefited. his White House
target. Clearly. the American people
do not want their President to get
down In the gutter and engage In .
name-calling contest with q small-bore
politician. Clearly. they think the Eli
senhower integrity does not need de-
fense. Significantly. some of the lead
ing Democrats in the Senate and else
where let it be known that they did
not indorse or approve the Mitchell
charges.
It seems q pity that Adlaf Stevenson
cannot be counted among them. I'M
mediately following Mr.. Mitchelfs
"bombshell" Mr.. Stevenson made q
speech aSsailing the administration but
he made no mention of what the New
York Times termed Mr.. Mitchell's "out-
rageous charges" In that Mr.. Steven
son made Mr.. Mitchell chairman and
is his close personal friend, his silence
could only to be interpreted as acquies-
cence and approval. This, Of course. Is
hard to square with the nobility of
character which his admirers attribute
to the former Democratic candidate,
now so obviously seeking denomination
At any rate, the incident has increase
the distaste for Mr.. Mitchell amonf
many Democratic politicians who neveA
liked him from the beginning.
Their argument is that these un-
founded charges Of Mr.. Mitchell against
, President Eisenhower and Bobby Jones
I.o 3v,fc FIR
ness to the party (Which was not very
great to start With to the point
where he is q distinct liability. No
future attack from him will be seriously
regarded and as committee chairman
he ranks among the lowest who can be
remembered in either party. Not only
has he lost whatever power he had to
damage the other side, but he has
greatly diminished the force Of the
Democratic propaganda, chief instru-
ment of which is the virulent little
magazine known as the Democratic Di-
gest and published under his auspices.
Also, it is held, he has lessened the
chances Of the denomination Of his
sponsor, the not-so-noble Adlai. Ger
tainly, none of the other Democratic
aspirants for the presidency have allied
themselves with Mr.. Mitchell in this
matter or evidenced any interest In
his attack. OF course, his magazine
article, written before the attack was
made, and setting forth higher stand
ard of ethics than any other chairman
ever profesSed, has become ridiculous. r.
Since then Mr.. Mitchell has repeated
mis- charge and the Republican hope is
that he will continue to repeat it and
make others Of similar nature. What-
ever foundation he had for them
was not enough. 1t would take a good
deal more evidence than he has pro-
duced to convince the people that the
President, or Bobby Jones either, Is q
crook or the willing tool of crooks.
Yet, that, in effect, was what the
bright young man from Illinois alleged.
In consequence. he has probably
reached the lowest point in his brief
political career Candidates of his
own party this fall are not eager for
his personal support. and those out in
California, like Jimmie Roosevelt, whom
he repudiated, have had some of the
damage he did them repaired. He
has promised to resign after the Mo-
vember elections. There will be few
tears shed by Democrats over his de-
parture.t
AS for Gen. Ike. he again has dem
onstrated his ability to keep his eye
on the ball. He refuses to be diverted
by strange characters like Mr.. Mitch
ell and goes ahead doing his job. It is
interesting to note that in a Congress
where he had no party control in
either branch. he got through the
major part Of massive program to
which he can point with pride" And
he got it through without bawling any
body out, without single fight, with
out any bad feeling. OF course. Senator
Morse. the great Oregon independent.
does not really count. He hates Ike but
Ike illustrates him by not hating back
which is hard to take. The President
is that oo-frequent phenomenon in
politics. public man who does not
lie, cheat. bluff or ,evade. People gen.
orally know that and thousands OF
Mitchells could not persuade them
otherwise. This Mr.. Mitchell was
foolish to try.
way disturbance and q possibly serious