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University Daily Kansan Thursday, Oct. 16, 1958
GOP Displays Spirit
KU Young Republicans attended a party rally in Greater Kansas City in mass last night. Here the KU Young Republicans exhibit their spirit with a display of "Reed for Governor" signs. State Republican leaders were in attendance at the rally.
Heads Get Together
Clyde Reed Jr., Republican candidate for governor, left, and Republican National Committeeman Harry Darby, center, talked with Johnson county party
leaders after the Republican rally last night. Here Reed and Darby have their heads together with a Johnson county committeeman.
Rally Produces Confident Air
It could have been half-time at a college football game, if the posters had been worded differently. Band music, a cheering crowd, the vendors—all the ingredients were there.
But last night the posters read "We Need Reed" and the program said "Vote Republican."
The candidates were late arriving. Small groups stood in the hallway outside the auditorium of Shawnee-Mission East High School. Women sold GOP pins shaped like tiny elephants.
A lady hurried up to a group of men.
"Do you know where I can get some help in Weswood?" she asked.
A bystander overheard her question and said, "She must need some doorbell rings."
The major candidates arrived and the crowd gave them a standing ovation. The home team had just taken the field.
KU Young Republicans sang a "Reed for Governor" song to the tune of a school fight song. Another KU group marched in hoisting "We Need Reed" posters, nearly filling the center section. The enthusiasm was that which would follow a first quarter touchdown. A delegation from Kansas State arrived and pandemonium broke loose.
The candidate for governor, Clyde Reed, made a short speech. He also received a standing ovation from his supporters.
After several more short speeches and more introductions of late-arriving county candidates, the main speaker, Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois, took the stand.
Sen. Dirksen, a soft-spoken man with a flair for the dramatic, alternated stories and emphatic statements. The crowd, swayed by his alternate moods, listened and laughed.
The gathering sat quietly for an hour. The final portion of Sen. Dirksen's speech was a coach's plea to his team:
"Go out and get votes," he said. "Voting is a sacred privilege."
Go out and get votes. He said. Voting is allowed privately. Well-wishers crowded onto the stage. The speakers shook hands with them. The candidates posed for pictures. Everyone talked at once.
People milled around the stage. A woman searched for her husband, who was talking to one of the candidates. The woman interrupted.
"Senator," she said, "if every Republican could hear you speak, we wouldn't have to work. We can win with men like you."
As the auditorium emptied, only the "We Need Reed" posters remained.
Outside, the candidates hurried to waiting cars. Two buses with college students aboard waited for traffic to clear. The fans went home happy.