"A Leaderless Army"

"There seems virtually no chance that Republicans can recapture control of either the House of Representatives or the Senate," reported Political Pulse Taker Sam Lubell this week. But Lubell, one of the few honest-to-grassroots doorbell ringers among the pollsters, found enough puzzling circumstances in his just completed eleven-state tour to make him hedge his predictions. "On many important issues," he wrote, "the voters are almost evenly torn between conflicting emotions. Effective campaigning could bring about a fairly close-fought election."

Most conflicting of all voter emotions, Lubell said, whirled about the U.S. economy. Outwardly, Lubell found "a land flowing with milk and contentment." In neighborhoods he had visited in previous years, he found more freshly painted homes, more garages with two cars, more backyard swimming pools than ever before. Yet the economy remained the major factor in what Lubell called "a strong but uneven Democratic tide." Strangely, Lubell found young voters far more edgy about recession than oldsters who best remembered the Great Depression. The striking result: "Of the Eisenhower voters who are under 35 years of age whom I interviewed, nearly half said they intended to vote Democratic this fall." The reason: "Overburdened with debt for new homes and autos as many of the younger workers were, and with little seniority to hold their jobs, they have been perhaps the one element in the population hit hardest by the economic downturn."

Among the other Lubell-probed issues:

Farmers. Most farmers remain prosperous; yet west of the Mississippi, Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson "remains a prime liability . . . Some Midwestern Republicans are showing themselves more popular than the President because of their known opposition to Benson's farm policies."

Labor. There is "a popular desire that labor unions be brought under some sort of control." But at the same time Republican candidates are being hurt by their support for right-to-work laws in such states as California, Ohio and Indiana.

Ike. A major Republican asset is the "sense of gratitude--which the China crisis has strengthened--that 'Eisenhower has kept us out of war.'" But Lubell noted "a significant change of attitude from two years ago." Today many voters "are looking to Washington for more vigorous leadership." The voters still like Ike (the Gallup poll this week found his popularity down 2% from August but still a healthy 56%). But the feeling is mostly personal, and Lubell found "a deep concern that Eisenhower may no longer be the master of the White House."

To Pollster Lubell, what all the conflict added up to was Republican confusion: "Although the Republicans are everywhere on the defensive, one gets the feeling that their potential strength is much greater than the voting trend indicates. In fact the Republican voting forces today seem like a leaderless army. Surprisingly large numbers of voters complain, 'We don't know what the Republican Party stands for.' Whether at this late date the President can answer that question may make the difference between a rout and a close election."--

Last week the G.O.P.'s two top men prepared to take their case to the nation. Beginning this week in Indianapolis, then going on to California and Oregon, Vice President Nixon planned to campaign right up to Election Day. Ike will make October campaign speeches in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, probably followed by appearances in New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. The President, said White House aides, would bear down hardest on Democratic deficit spending, on the failure of the Democratic Congress to pass a labor bill last session, and on the continuing recovery in the national economy.

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