Keep it Clean--if Possible, Evening Star (Article, August 1952)
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Keep It Clean--if Possible
General Eisenhower has taken his stand for a clean campaign. He has said that appeals to "prejudice and bigotry have no place in America." As far as he is concerned, he will "rebuke and censure" attempts to subvert the American tradition by resorting to such appeals.
On the other side of the political fence, Senator Mike Monroney of Oklahoma has taken a similar stand. Senator Monroney, who heads up the Democratic speakers' bureau, says: "We intend to present our case for Governor Stevenson and other Democratic candidates clearly, concisely and honestly, without demagoguery or smear and without personal attack."
If Governor Stevenson concurs, as he undoubtedly does, the country is pretty well assured of a clean campaign at the higher electioneering levels. But that has always been more or less the case. The dirty work, the eye-gouging and the oratorical brass knuckles have customarily been reserved for those who function at the lower levels. And this year's campaign has shown signs of being no exception to the rule.
Maryland's Governor McKeldin, who put General Eisenhower in nomination, has been trying to make some political capital out of the fact that Governor Stevenson once gave a deposition in which he stated that, prior to 1948, he had not heard of Alger Hiss' Communist affiliations, and that Hiss, as far as he knew, had a good reputation. This, of course, was before Hiss had been convicted.
At an even lower level was the recent speech by Senator Dirksen of Illinois in which he denounced the "lavendar lads" in the State Department--a dubious refinement of the mass smear technique. A certain amount of this sort of politicking probably is unavoidable in a presidential campaign. It is not going to attract the votes that the Republicans will need in order to win, however, and it is a technique which appeals to that prejudice and bigotry which General Eisenhower has repudiated.
This is not to suggest that the Republicans are the sole offenders in this respect. Democrats in the past have tried just as hard to cull votes from appeals directed to the prejudices of the voters, and no doubt they will be guilty of the same offense this time. But if both presidential candidates will set the example, and if they will actually crack down on those among their supporters who go astray, the gutter type of politics can at least be held to a minimum this year.
