The Avalanche

The Eisenhower avalanche was awesome in its force and fury. It crushed Democrat Adlai Stevenson in the entire Northeast, swept across Midwestern farmlands with a setback only in Missouri, shattered Democratic presidential hopes on the Pacific Coast and burst through traditional Democratic barriers in the South--where Ike carried Texas, Florida, Virginia, West Virginia. Kentucky. Tennessee and, unbelievably, Louisiana. It tore city after city--from Jersey City to Chicago to Montgomery--from the Democratic grasp. It cut across nearly all racial, religious, ethnic and economic lines. It gave Dwight Eisenhower a victory surging toward the 10 million plurality mark, with about 58% of the U.S. vote, and victories in 41 states.

The immensity of the Eisenhower triumph made it inconceivable that he would not carry other Republicans with him. But millions of U.S. voters split their tickets in an astonishing personal tribute to the President. Thus, while Ike won Washington State handily and missed only by a hairsbreadth in Missouri, Washington's Democratic Senator Warren Magnuson and Missouri's Democratic Senator Thomas C. Hennings Jr. notably wrecked their Republican opponents by rolling up more votes than Ike in their states. More than 15 hours after the polls closed, his party was still in a struggle for control of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives--a fact that made shaky even Ike's own claim that his was a vic tory for "modern Republicanism."

Adlai Stevenson had based his hopes on the Solid South, on farm discontent in the Midwest, on the labor vote in the cities of the industrial North and on his party's longtime hold on racial, religious and ethnic minorities. One after another, those hopes were smashed.

The Splintered South. Nearly all observers had predicted that the South, with the exception of Florida, would return to the Democrats. A States Rights ticket headed by former Internal Revenue Commissioner T. Coleman Andrews was expected to cut significantly into Eisenhower's vote. But the third-party movement was a complete flop. Southern Negroes, on the other hand, turned strongly toward Eisenhower. Four Negro districts in Richmond had gone more than five to one for Stevenson in 1952; this time they stood more than two to one for Ike. In Atlanta, Negroes voted about four to one for Eisenhower. Negroes helped Eisenhower (and Republican Senatorial Candidate John Sherman Cooper) carry Kentucky by contributing to Ike's 34,000 plurality in Louisville. In winning Florida's vital Dade County (Miami) by 23,000 votes, Ike took five of twelve Negro districts. And Negro switches played a crucial part in the most remarkable Eisenhower victory of all: Louisiana, Democratic since 1876.

Texas Democrats were torn between their liberal, moderate and conservative factions--and Ike won the state by 186,000. West Virginia Democrats suffered because of corruption charges against their state administration. But more than anything else, the Eisenhower showing in the South was attributable to the fact that voters rose above their civil-rights grievances and resentments to cast a solid vote of approval for Dwight Eisenhower as a world leader in a time of crisis.

The Midwestern Revolt. The much-touted farm revolt barely affected Ike himself. In Minnesota's prosperous Deerfield township, for example, Ike was down by twelve percentage points from 1952--but he stood at a still healthy 64.5%. In Iowa, votes ranging up to 63% in well-to-do farm districts more than compensated for losses in drought-stricken areas. Eisenhower even won some low-income Kentucky farm districts that had gone for Stevenson by as much as 75% in 1952. Only in Missouri did Stevenson manage to stem the Eisenhower tide--and that state's reversal of its 1952 vote was due less to the farm revolt than to a wretched Republican machine, a strong Democratic state ticket, and a smooth Democratic organization.

East of the Mississippi, Ike took everything in sight--and he helped many another Republican candidate to victory: e.g.,in Illinois, Republican Senator Everett Dirksen and G.O.P. Governor William Stratton would have been beaten had it not been for the Eisenhower coattails. It was in the Northeast that Republicans made their greatest House gains.

The industrial cities were a key to the election (see box). From the moment Ike carried industrial Bridgeport by 18,970 (v. 314 votes in 1952), the avalanche was in the making. The victory in Chicago was a true political wonder. Items:

P: The 59th precinct of the 13th ward is accurately known as "Little Lithuania." Its voters know what it means to be ground under the heel of Russian oppression. Ike won the precinct by 53.3% in 1952. This time he took 66.4%.

P: The 70th precinct of the 13th ward is heavily Italian. Ike came from 44.4% in 1952 to 53-3% this year.

P: The 41st precinct of the 16th ward is a low-income Negro district. Ike lost it in 1952, scoring a paltry 25.5%. This time he received 41%--and Negro switches of similar size were reported in city after city of the Northeast.

P: The 44th precinct of the 18th ward is middle-income Irish. It gave Eisenhower only 40.7% of its 1952 vote. In 1956 he won 50.4%.

The immensity of his personal victory placed Dwight Eisenhower in a position unique in U.S. political history. As has no other President, he towers above his own political party. In other words, even with his epochal assist, the G.O.P. came perilously close to disaster. Ike is pledged to remake the Republican Party in the next four years, and his success in keeping the pledge may well decide its electoral future. He has powerful logic on his side: after 1956 it will be a foolhardy Republican who defies his wishes.

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