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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, Oct. 19, 1954
It's Meek vs. Douglas In Key Illinois Race
(Editor's Note: This is another in a series of articles on this fall's most important elections.)
The senatorial race in Illinois this fall finds the incumbent, Paul H. Douglas, campaigning on the Democratic ticket on the basis of his record in Congress. His opponent, Joseph T. Meek, late president of the 60,000-member Illinois Federation of Retail Associations, earned the Republican nomination in a decisive victory over nine primary opponents.
Mr. Meek carried nearly every county in the primary, despite having never before run for a public office, and his evident popularity later was increased by an endorsement from President Eisenhower. The candidate had differed from his party leader on several important issues, and many sources doubted that the President would back him.
On the other hand, Sen. Douglas' voting record shows that he gave the President 35 per cent active support and 58 per cent active opposition in 1954. A voting participation record of 98 per cent in the 1953 session of Congress and 92 per cent during 1954 entitles Sen. Douglas to a place as one of the more responsible members of the upper house.
The senator's name is linked with a large number of amendments and pieces of legislation. Prominent in this record is a vigorous and consistent attack on unemployment, which the Democratic candidate says the administration has not checked.
Other administration policies which Sen. Douglas has criticized include the stands taken on defense, taxes, public housing, farm price supports, labor, civil rights, public power, and conservation. He definitely favors economy in the government and has been quoted for his statement, "This is no time to roll out the pork barrel."
This comment was made in connection with the senator's attempt to reduce appropriations for general navigation and flood control.
Mr. Meek refers to himself as "a no-label, unhyphenated Republican . . . responsible to the best economic interests of the Illinois voters." He has endorsed Sen. Joseph McCarthy's investigations of Communists in the government, though he said that the "technique is not always perfection."
The Republican candidate said he would "enthusiastically support the President in advancing basic Republican principles." Mr. Meek differed from the President especially over the foreign aid program and the Bricker amendment.
"I am proud that our party has supported the President when he was right, even when his own party ran out on him," Sen. Douglas said of Mr. Meek's opposition to certain administration programs.
"My first allegiance is to the needs and wishes
of the people of Illinois," Mr. Meek said. He claimed that he is campaigning against Adlai E. Stevenson, former Democratic governor of the state, as well as Sen. Douglas, because if he defeats the senator "Stevenson will be eliminated as a leading Democratic Presidential candidate in 1956."
Mr. Stevenson recently called for the Democratic senator's re-election, especially noting that Sen. Douglas had fought "Republican attempts to give away to private companies the knowledge of atomic energy developed at such great expense to all the American people."
Sen. Douglas was elected in 1945 by a 55 per cent vote when he and Gov. Stevenson achieved a landslide over the Republican party, which had had an unpopular state administration. The 62-year-old senator was a member of the economics faculty at the University of Chicago and drafted the Illinois Old Age Pension act.
Sen. Douglas helped draft the state's unemployment insurance law and assisted in revising the federal Social Security act in 1939. From 1939-42 he was an alderman on the Chicago City council, and in May 1942 he enlisted as a private in the Marine corps. He was wounded at Okinawa.
Sen. Douglas defeated C. Wayland Brooks (R-III.) in the 1948 election. He is a member of the Senate Banking and Currency and Labor and Public Welfare committees and the Joint Committee on the Economic Report. His wife, Emily Taft Douglas, was a Democratic representative in the 79th Congress (1944-46).
Mr. Meek established the Illinois Federation of Retail Associations in 1935 and headed the group until April 29. As president of the organization he campaigned for years in Springfield (Ill.) and Washington against governmental controls. He supported the late Sen. Robert A. Taft (R.-Ohio) for the Republican presidential nomination in 1952.
The 50-year-old Republican candidate based his primary campaign on support of the Bricker amendment, opposition to "another Korea" in southeastern Asia, "creeping Socialism." Trumanism, and New Dealism. He has recently attacked Sen. Douglas as "an acceptor of a foreign way of life, an apologist for left-wingers, a New Dealer, Fair Dealer, and advocate of the Fear Deal," referring to the senator's warnings of recession.
Mr. Meek accuses Sen. Douglas of favoring foreign aid more than aid to American farmers and businessmen. Programs which the senator favors and Mr. Meek opposes include foreign aid, amendment of the Taft-Hartley Labor law, a fair employment practices law, public housing, broader social security and unemployment compensation, federal aid to education, welfare legislation, and "fair trade" laws.
—Amy De Yong
Daily Hansan
Americans spent $13,000,000,000 in
1953 for 5,750,000 new automobiles.
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Minnesota Students Experiment in Politics
No matter how quiet it appears, or how messy it becomes, politics is always exciting. And the only way to really enjoy it is to jump in, head first. That's what 25 students at the University of Minnesota are doing.
It's part of an idea that started eight years ago in Minneapolis, an idea that has been so successful it might well be copied by other schools.
You might compare this experiment in politics with "practice teaching" in education. The course name is "field work in government and politics." There are no textbooks, no formal lectures, and no exams. The student's grade is based on his reports on what he's done and what he's learned from active participation in an actual campaign.
Another advantage—while these Minnesota students ring door-bells they meet thousands of people. Many they've never seen before . . . but they gain experience with all types. That's valuable, whether you're selling a political candidate or a pair of shoes.
What's the effect of such a program on the general public? Look at our own state. This year's campaign could have used more push. With election day only two weeks away, newspapermen are pointing out the apathetic attitude of many Kansans. They say we aren't particularly interested in who's running or what they're running for.
These Minnesota campaigners might have helped Kansas. Enthusiasm can be contagious, especially the enthusiasm of a young campaigner who believed in his candidate and who's having the time of his life talking to the voters.
Why not give this plan a trial at KU? Think of the possibilities, and of the benefits both to the student and to the voter. Let's remember that disinterest and ignorance on the part of the citizen are the greatest foes of democracy.
—Judith Ferrell
... Short Ones ...
For a lot of Frenchmen it wasn't easy to vote on the rearmament of Germany. Behind the words, "... on the side of the West," they could hear a steady accompaniment of hob-nailed boots.
Latest way to hunt birds; Buy a jet. At Smoky Hill Air Force base nearly 700 dead and dying birds landed on the runway. Jet vapors killed 'em.
Stan Freberg teaches his meb how to mumble on his latest record, "Sh-Boom." Shades of Marlon Brando!
We dig these cool "crew cuts a la female." Only trouble: From the back you're not sure whether it's a man who needs a haircut or a gal who's had one.
Ike's ended his eight-week work-play vacation in Colorado. In well, he might as well since snow is beginning to fall on his favorite fishing hole in Fraser.