Target: Ike

From the moment Adlai Stevenson stepped off the plane at the Miami airport last week, the politicos attending the Southern Democratic Conference began to eye him carefully. They noted that he never missed a chance to handshake his way through a crowd, or to greet a potential party fatcat. And they were convinced, as Stevenson delivered the conference's major speech at a $100-a-plate dinner, that they were listening to a candidate for 1956 who was getting ready to run on a strong anti-Eisenhower platform.

"This has been a fateful week in the history of American Government," said Stevenson. "We are witnessing the bitter harvest from the seeds of slander, defamation and disunion planted in the soil of our democracy . . . Where we looked forward to a nation united, we have a people divided. Where we expected candor, we have misrepresentation. Where we expected firm leadership, we have timidity ..."

Political Plungers. "And why, you ask, have the demagogues triumphed so often? The answer is inescapable: because a group of political plungers has persuaded the President that McCarthyism is the best Republican formula for political success. Had the Eisenhower Administration chosen to act in defense of itself and of the nation which it must govern, it would have had the grateful and dedicated support of all but a tiny and deluded minority of our people. Yet the Administration appears to be helpless ... It seems to me that this [Secretary of the Army] Stevens incident illustrates what preceding events have made memorably plain: a political party divided against itself--half McCarthy and half Eisenhower--cannot produce national unity; cannot govern with confidence and purpose. And it demonstrates that, so long as it attempts to share power with its enemies, it will inexorably lose power to them."

Even more boldly, Stevenson moved into General Eisenhower's professional field to ask questions about the "new look" military concept (TiME, Jan. 25). "The only thing new about the 'new look' appears to be the weakening of our Navy and ground forces and reducing the non-atomic programs and policies that we need to win the cold war.

"Was the Administration caught between two conflicting sets of promises--to reduce the budget and strengthen our defenses? Did it choose the former [i.e., the "new look"] because the one thing that could not be cut, the sine qua non of our security, was the new weapons and air power?"

Potential Split. Stevenson's speech followed a line laid down earlier by Democratic National Chairman Steve Mitchell: "It is now time to make President Eisenhower our target and charge him with full responsibility for the actions of all Republicans." This line ran counter to the private convictions of many Southern Democrats. Snapped Georgia's Richard Russell: "Mr. Mitchell is perfectly entitled to his opinion." Texas' Lyndon Johnson, Senate minority leader, doggedly stuck to his own elect-Democrats-and-help-Eisenhower line. The truth was that most Southern Democrats thought Stevenson would have done better to talk about low farm prices and the state of the economy rather than call attention to party splits. Reason: the Democratic Party itself may be ripped wide open if the Supreme Court rules against segregation in schools in the cases now pending.

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