Significant Glimpse

With a lot of noise and a little action, last week the curtain lifted--slightly--on the great political drama of 1956, the campaign for the presidency. The props were not set up, and some of the main characters were still behind the scenes, but the U.S. nevertheless got a significant glimpse of the players moving into their places.

The Chicago conference of 46 U.S. governors* provided most of the onstage noise and movement, and some perspective on the cast of characters in the two parties. On the Republican side there was no change; all the G.O.P. governors present, save one,/- were for Eisenhower. Their only question: Will he run? There is no good political reason why Ike should answer this now, and many good reasons why he should enforce some party discipline by delaying an answer.

The Democratic case is more complex. Stevenson is assumed to be far ahead if he wants it--and he is assumed to want it. But his support could melt if, for instance, Estes Kefauver won a startling string of primaries as he did in 1952--or if Averell Harriman, who looks like a more serious contender now than he did six months ago, continues to gain.

Time to Delay. Last week "the Keef's" California supporters decided that they would enter his name in their state preferential primary next year. Harriman, busily politicking about Chicago (although his awkward eagerness among the easygoing pols reminded one observer of a man trying to enjoy himself at a party after he had lost one shoe), was taken seriously, if not affectionately.

The activities of Harriman and Kefauver constitute a certain amount of pressure on Stevenson to announce his intentions. Further pressure was applied last week, no doubt unwittingly, by Stevenson's exwife, Mrs. Ellen Borden Stevenson, when she told reporters in an interview that Adlai was a "Hamlet" who "could not make up his mind."

But these pressures were not overwhelming. Against them stood good reasons why Adlai Stevenson should make no definite pronouncement now. If he did so, various political leaders would be under great and unwelcome pressure to declare for or against him. They would rather wait for sentiment to jell.

Sensitive to this, and not yet feeling any searing breath on his neck, Stevenson and his advisers looked for a compromise which would advance the probability that he would run and yet not definitely commit him. They found it.

Time to Decide. Stevenson's friend, former Democratic National Chairman Stephen Mitchell, invited 100 newsmen covering the Governors' Conference to Chicago's swank skyscraper Tavern Club for drinks and dinner. Afterwards, Stevenson stood up and began to read from prepared notes.

"I'm told," he said, "that on the one hand I'm coy and undecided and on the other hand I'm eager and anxious. I've even heard it said that I cannot make up my mind." While the newsmen scribbled, Stevenson promised to announce his decision--soon. "I shall tell you what I'm going to do," he said, "by the end of November, and possibly some time before."

Asked if he could do better against Eisenhower next time, he replied crisply: "I think anybody could." He criticized the President's "tough talk" before the Geneva Conference and his soft words there. "I, for one," said Stevenson, "had never expected an American President to plead with a third-string Communist [meaning Soviet Defense Minister Marshal Georgy Zhukov] to please believe that the U.S. wants peace."

Afterwards, asked if Adlai Stevenson might consider running for the U.S. Senate next year, Steve Mitchell snapped: "We don't play in the minors."

* Absent: Minnesota's Orville Freeman, traveling abroad, and Mississippi's ailing Hugh White.

/- The exception: Utah's arch-conservative J. Bracken Lee, foe of the United Nations and federal aid programs. In Chicago last week Republican Lee said he would bolt to the "right" kind of Democrat running against Ike. By the right kind of Democrat, Bracken Lee seems to be thinking of James Buchanan or Grover Cleveland.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.