A Candidate's Education

Until he came to Chicago, Ike Eisenhower had never been within buttonholing distance of a national political convention. But he caught the fever almost from the moment he forted up in his suite at the Blackstone Hotel on Saturday before the big show began. And like anyone else at his first convention, Ike discovered that some mighty odd characters are swept along by the human tides that flow noisily in & out of political headquarters.

Crackpots hustled in by the dozens to give him the benefit of grandiose schemes for victory. One announced that he was the man solely responsible for the victory of Calvin Coolidge--given proper power, he wanted to do the trick for Ike, too. But most of his ilk were politely turned away by pretty, blonde Sally Pillsbury of the famed flour family, a volunteer worker who toiled at the Eisenhower reception desk. A scourge of drunks arrived too, and were yanked out to fresh air by Chicago policemen.

Ike rose each day at 6, and usually made a point of breakfasting with a state delegation. "I am not important," he told a group from Nebraska. "It is the basic belief that is important." To half a hundred Missouri delegates and alternates he used brisker language. "As long as we are in this thing," he said with a grin, "let's stick in it together and throw the stove lid at anything that gets in our way!" "I don't," he told men & women from Oklahoma, "make promises that a bottle of ointment will cure you of everything from poverty to flat feet."

At times he came close to being nonplused. One of three Alaskan delegates-- a small, weatherbeaten man named Gerrit Snider--strode up to him, clutching a bundle wrapped in newspapers. "Would you appoint a native Alaskan, a real sourdough governor of Alaska?" the visitor demanded. Startled, Ike paused a moment, and then said yes. Snider immediately unwrapped the parcel and yanked out a two-skin sable choker.

"What," Ike gulped, "is this--mink?" It was sable, Snider announced. He added proudly that he had trapped it himself. "Mamie will love this," the general said, accepting the gift, "but remember now, this is no political deal."

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