Wednesday. Nov. 11, 1953
To Stump or Not to Stump That Is the Question for Ike
(Editor's note: Recently President Eisenhower announced that he will not campaign in the coming congressional elections. We here present both views of the decision.)
President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced in a recent press conference last week that he will not campaign in the coming congressional elections. He further stated that he will try to remain non-partisan, as is befitting the high office of president.
The goal may be a very idealistic one, but it may not prove to be practical. In announcing this goal to the public he without doubt rose in personal popularity. People like to think of the leader of their nation as having high ideals.
By being non-partisan he may have shown a weakness to lead. He also may not feel that he is capable of expressing ideas on certain subjects because of lack of knowledge. A positive individual usually has definite views and ideas and will express them. Our President may be showing his weaknesses by taking the easy way out. By being non-partisan he will not have to state any definite ideas which might hurt his own personal popularity.
The American people are egotistical enough that they want to be noticed and their interests noticed. They want a man to come down from his high pedestal and tell them what he will do in his administration.
President Eisenhower in campaigning could possibly help a candidate. Recent polls have indicated that he is still extremely popular as a man. Eisenhower, the general, is still remembered by most Americans. The American people love the glory attached to the military, and this carries a great deal of weight in the influence a man may have.
Eisenhower may hurt himself and his party by not campaigning. People may think that he has no interest in them or their problems or what they think and is just content to sit in the White House and say "I am non-partisan."
The people have many problems, and it might be good for Eisenhower to clarify his stand on these issues. The farmers are being caught in the squeeze between falling farm prices and rising costs. Unemployment seems to be rising. Crime is on the increase in the United States. The American people, before voting for a party, would like to know what the party leader has in mind. And after all, Eisenhower was elected on the Republican ticket and they still associate him with the party. —Elizabeth Wohlgemuth.
In a press conference recently, President Eisenhower told newsmen he definitely would not campaign for individual candidates in next year's congressional election.
At first glance this may seem like an unwise decision, in the light of the success attained by former President Truman on his whistle-stop tours preceding elections while he was Chief Executive.
However, the more one looks into the reasoning behind Mr. Eisenhower's decision, the more it becomes apparent that he has some good points.
Although Mr. Truman undoubtedly did a lot of good for his political friends by stumping for them, he may have at the same time hurt his own position when a candidate failed to win.
In other words, a president more or less lays his prestige on the line when he goes all out to support an individual candidate, and if that man doesn't win, the President has received what amounts to a vote of no confidence in that area.
Evidently Mr. Eisenhower doesn't feel secure enough at the present to start laying his power on the line in support of individual candidates, or else he feels so secure he thinks it isn't worth the trouble.
If he goes out and stumps for the Republicans in danger of losing their seats in Congress, he also puts the candidate on the spot. If the candidate wins he may feel that he is indebted to the President for the help. This may, in turn, influence his voting on issues that come before Congress.
Another point in favor of the President's decision is this thing of having people indebted to him politically.
And then there is always the question of whom the President should and should not support. Dissension in the party ranks could be caused by a president who gives support to only a chosen few men, when a large number think a helping hand should be extended.
On the other hand, the leader who endorses all the candidates who need help may find himself "pinning a rose" on some rather unsavory characters.
With the slight majorities held by the Republicans in both houses (the one in the Senate is a workable, but not a numerical majority), the outcome of the congressional elections will determine whether or not the Eisenhower administration can carry through its policies to the end of his term. —Don Tice.
BOOKS: Pocket Books Wise Up To Carry Good Material
Page 2 University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Nov. 11, 1953
THE CITY OF ANGER. By William Manchester. New York: Ballan-Books. 1953.474 pages.
The paper-backed books—such maligned by social critics and self-appointed censors, as well as some of the official variety—have come upon happy days. Not only are the classics being published by Bantam, Pocket, and the others (often, it must be admitted, with erotic covers), but some originals are being handled.
They're not the originals of the Gold Medal variety, trash that no self-respecting publisher would handle. They're originals like "Executive Suite," which appeared earlier this year and is now headed for MGM fame and fortune, and "The City of Anger," a recent effort of the same publisher, Ballantine.
Author of "The City of Anger," is a vigorous young writer named William Manchester, who achieved some distinction in his student days at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, went to Baltimore, did a commendable biography of H. L. Mencken called "Disturber of the Peace," and became, incidentally, Mencken's protege, his first in many years.
"The City of Anger" is far from a great book, but it's an amazing book. It's amazing that a still immature writer, a young man, should know so much about life, especially its ugly sides.
The writing style frequently is awkward. It's sometimes hard to determine just what Manchester wants to say. The Faith Baldwin-Ethel M. Dell school of readers will
be revolted. But others, who have a genuine interest in the social novel, should find "The City of Anger" an interesting piece of writing.
Manchester fails to take sides in the issue—though either side would be disreputable. He is simply a commentator; much in the objective style of John Des Passos in the days before he became a conservative. But it might be well to know where Manchester stands.
Obviously he doesn't favor a racket that can ruin lives, despoil cities, breed vice throughout the land. For that matter, who, aside from the Frank Costello's of America, does favor such things? But does he believe there is a social problem in the slums he discusses so graphically? Does he feel any horror at what happens to innocent but misguided persons caught in the rackets?
It deals with corruption in a big city on the fringe of the South—Baltimore, in all probability. Two gangs are battling for control of city government, and various pawns are caught in the struggle—the dissolute daughter of an aristocratic old family, the family's social-conscious son, a Negro garbage-collector whose great passion is the numbers racket, a numbers racket writer, a cop who never been allowed to leave the office for the beat he's long dreamed of. And standing clear and clean of the mess is the police commissioner, who's headed for retirement but who wants to keep his integrity as well as his job.
Who He? , by Alfred Bester (Dial); a biting satire on television.
-R.D
"Who He?" is the name of a mythical quiz program in which the master of ceremonies describes a person and asks "Who He?" If the contestant answers correctly he gets a big prize.
"Now I'm the last man to blow the whistle on another's man's act, but we were in the fire last Sat. and if Jake hadn't cut the heart of the plate from left field, they'd still be running the bases. What we need is organization and direction. The show's got to be handled like a military operation, and Sachs isn't the man to set up the cadre."
The scene is "The Rock"—Manhattan. The characters make enormous salaries and speak in a jargon. An executive named Bacon discussing the program says:
The hero of the book is Jake Lennox, who writes "Who He?" Lennox, of course, ends up in retirement in New Jersey spending what money he can get on a psychiatrist. But until that happens the book is fast reading and funny . . .
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas Student Newspaper News Room KU 251 Ad Room KU 376 Member of the Kansas Press Assn., National Editorial Assn., Inland Daily Press Assn., Associate Colegate Press Assn. Registered Office, the North Carolina Service. 420 Madison Avenue, N.Y. City Mail Subscription rates: $3 a semester or less. Lawrence Published in Lawrence, Kan. Key afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, Universities holidays and examination periods. 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., Post Office
at Lawrence, Kau., Post Office under act of March 3. 1879.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
"Well, Freda, let me put it another way——."
Fools Fill the World-- All on the Highways
People are really funny—both ha, ha, and peculiar. Thirty-five long years ago Americans relaxed to live a life of ease—no more families would be broken up by untimely deaths; no more boys would be slaughtered needlessly.
Today, practically any parent will throw up his or her arms when the idea of their son being sent off to
Just 35 years ago today the nation breathed a sigh of relief as the wholesale slaughter on the battlefields of Europe came to a halt, but today more persons lose their lives on this country's highways yearly than perished from enemy gunfire in World War I.
Is all this worth it? We fret and worry constantly about the possibility of yet another world war, but we sprint merrily along the streets and roads with reckless abandon, perhaps with the thought of "every man for himself."
In 1918, when the Axis powers signed the armistice with the Allies, the world thought killing of the masses had come to a grinding conclusion. They could not foresee the second world conflict, which, by the way, did not "produce" as many fatalities or maimed as did 1952 on U.S. highways.
foreign combat
"He might get killed," they say, "and we don't want that!"
But let junior ask mom or pop for the family motor car for next Saturday night and the thought he might wind up in the nearest hospital or morgue never enters their minds.
"Oh, he won't get killed or hurt. Accidents always happen to someone else."
But bold statistics prove otherwise. Numerous teen-age youths today bear permanent scars, limps, etc., from some near brush with death behind a steering wheel—the other fellow's fault, of course. Many others have not been that "lucky."
Coming home to what? So some maniac who calls himself a driver can run him down?
the answer? Common sense—every other motorist is a fool!
-Stan Hamilton.