Rising Barometer

Alighting from the Columbine at the Greater Pittsburgh Airport one afternoon last week, Candidate Dwight Eisenhower found campaign weather crisp and sunny. Moreover, with one sweep of his practiced eye, he could see that something was happening to the political barometer in this long-Democratic (since 1936) area. More than 5,000 had ignored the sixth World Series game, instead were gathered to meet his plane. Along the 18-mile route into the city, the President, in his bubble-domed limousine, saw jammed roadsides and signs ("Rosslyn Farms 99.4% for Ike") pointing his way. In downtown Pittsburgh 100,000 lined the curbs. Remembering triumphal tours of Franklin Roosevelt. Pittsburghers said Ike's turnout rivaled the best mustered for F.D.R. Gasped a GOPolitician: "This can't be an organized demonstration. There is no organization to organize it."

Closeted with Republican fund raisers, Ike offered some confident advice: "If I had the task of organizing and raising money ... I would say, 'How much happier are you than you were four years ago?' " Then he hurried to the Hunt Armory for his speech, marched into an arena where 10,000 had filled all seats; half as many more were waiting to listen from outside. Introduced by Pennsylvania's campaigning U.S. Senator Jim Duff (see below), "Mamie Eisenhower's husband" apologized that Mamie was kept in Washington by a cold, proceeded to lash Democratic "partisan oratory that has concealed or twisted the facts" on small business, the cost of living, schools and labor. Said Ike: "I wonder what kind of political children they think we are--and what kind of a man do they think I am?" So great was the crush after the speech that the President forgot his topcoat, made the return trip to the airport in a tweed model borrowed from a Secret Service man.

Voice from Detroit. Whereas in Pittsburgh Ike had flown to the voters' mountain, three nights later the mountain moved to him. At Washington's Sheraton-Park Hotel, 40 Eisenhower advocates from the capital area, 60 more brought in from around the U.S. by Citizens for Eisenhower-Nixon, gathered for a "press conference." Though Ike knew that his audience (it included ex-Yankee Phil Rizzuto, John Roosevelt, Medal of Honorman "Commando" Kelly, onetime Ambassador Lewis Douglas) was sympathetic, questions had not been screened.

During a televised half-hour a dozen people caught Ike's eye. Most talked too much about themselves; a few were outstanding, e.g., Detroit Auto Worker Edward Kubiske of the pro-Democratic United Auto Workers, who asked Ike's help in convincing "the fellows at the shop" that the Eisenhower labor record was sounder than the Democratic record.

"I'm No Millionaire." When the show's time ran out in midsentence, Ike remained for half a dozen more questions. The best were pitched after TV cameras clicked off. e.g., by Manhattan Garment Worker Isadore Siegal ("I didn't make up my mind yet in this election"): "You have a lot of people that are big shots in the Cabinet. I want to ask you, Mr. President, do you think of all the working people alike--like in the big business?" Said Ike: "I have three or four very successful businessmen in the Cabinet . . . the Defense Department is spending something like $40 billion a year of our money . . . Who would you rather have in charge of that, some failure that never did anything or a successful businessman?"

But though he had big businessmen in his Cabinet, Dwight Eisenhower held no special brief for big corporations. To a small businessman in the audience, the President explained the need for ment of antitrust laws in the U.S. "We get the benefits of bigness . . . just as efficiently and as rapidly as we can, but we do not let [the corporations] get so big they dominate the rest of us. Now I am no millionaire and . . . you are not. So we are on the side of trying to keep . . . these boys from bossing us."

Remembering that one night later another television extravaganza would celebrate the President's 66th birthday, Mrs. Samuel Harper of Portland, Me. rose, asked what present Ike most wanted. Said he: "Exactly the same as ... every other American ... an assurance that a just peace [is] on the horizon."

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