Hopes & Hoppers

THE PRESIDENT-ELECT Hopes & Hoppes

At Eisenhower headquarters in New York's Commodore Hotel last week, Christmas jollity manifested itself chiefly in the bounding of plastic grasshoppers. An old and previously unnamed plaything, the toy grasshopper, which has springy metal legs and a rubber suction cup on its belly, was promptly christened "the Eisen-hopper" by fascinated newsmen. Introduced into Ike's offices by his old friend, Toy Manufacturer Louis Marx, the Eisenhopper caught the President-elect's fancy. Talking business with serious-faced guests, Ike would casually press a hopper on to his desk, and roar with delight when, seconds later, it startled the visitors by springing ceilingward.

Apart from the antics of the Eisenhopper, the first half of Christmas week offered the President-elect little opportunity for relaxation. Following the dictates of courtesy and good politics, Ike sought out the nation's last Republican President, Herbert Hoover, and spent an hour and a half lunching with him at John Foster Dulles' home, where the Eisenhower MacArthur meeting had taken place a week before. To reporters and photographers, the two Republican chieftains, both in blue cashmere overcoats and wearing nearly identical light blue ties, were carefully unspecific about their conversation.

"Just a social gathering at which we went over the affairs of government," said Ike.

Including reorganization of government? asked a reporter. "That and many other things," answered Ike as he led Hoover to a waiting limousine.

For 2 1/2 days Ike ran through a jam packed series of appointments dominated by men whose chief concern was the struggle against world Communism. At noontime on the day before Christmas, however, he temporarily abandoned his office with the avowed hope of spending a good, family holiday. That evening, as he helped to decorate the Eisenhower tree and fill his grandchildren's stockings, there seemed no reason why his hope shouldn't come true. But Christmas morning he awoke to the unsettling news that Stalin, through the New York Times, had expressed willingness to meet with him.

Fencing off press demands for immediate comment on the Stalin statement.

Ike and Mamie went off to a Christmas service at the Columbia University chapel.

After the service, Chaplain John McGill Krumm expressed his regret that Ike was soon to give up the presidency of Columbia. "I hate to see you go," said Dr.

Krumm, then, realizing that he may have indicated he was a Stevenson man, added hastily "in a way." Replied Ike, laughing at Krumm's discomfort: "I hate to go, too--in a way." Then he and Mamie went home to join the rest of the family around the Christmas tree. Obviously preoccupied, Ike paced about uneasily for a while before he settled down to playing with Grandson Dwight David's new electric train (see NEWS IN PICTURES).

Next day Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill went Stalin one better, announced that he would come to New York next week to visit Ike. The Presidentelect's reply was a mixture of personal warmth and clear warning that he could not yet speak officially for the U.S. Said he: "I heard that my old friend was coming and I am delighted to meet him." If he got nothing else out of his meeting with Ike, Churchill was almost certain to come away from it with an Eisenhopper.

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