Targets for Tomorrow

French Lick, Ind. (pop. 2,000), a quiet spa, has a special place in the nostalgia of the Democratic Party. There the pre-F.D.R. generation of Democratic leaders were wont to gather before and after election-time, consuming mint juleps, Pluto water ("If nature won't, Pluto will") and the salty wisdom of Indiana's late boss, Tom Taggart. Last week the Democrats, their blood up, went back to French Lick to consider how their party might be reinvigorated for 1956. "There is no question but what we will focus our guns on the President himself if he is a candidate," said National Chairman Paul Butler, "or his record, if he isn't."

Observers at French Lick noted that the Democratic word-fire was concentrated against four special Republican targets: 1) Eisenhower is a puppet of Big Business; 2) Eisenhower has no feeling for human needs; 3) Eisenhower plays too much golf; 4) Eisenhower likes Nixon.

Yearning for Action. Senior Democratic spokesman was former President Harry Truman. "Misrepresentation . . . demagoguery!" were among his characterizations of the Eisenhower record. Truman said that his successor "has never missed a chance to befuddle the real issues in every speech he reads . . . This Administration has contributed little to the art of government except perhaps in its use of publicity and advertising techniques.

"It has offered a timid program in some important areas, but it was mostly copied from the Democrats. The only new program it has put forward was for the construction of highways, and it botched that one by proposing to finance it with a bonanza to the Wall Street financiers--a bond issue. In other areas this Republican Administration has actually moved backward. It is dominated and controlled by Big Business--which it allows to plunder our natural resources.

"It has let farm prices fall lower and lower. It has done little or nothing for labor. It has spoken prettily of a deep feeling for human needs, and then turned right around and fought against aid to education--and against increased social-security benefits ... It saddens and sickens me . . . This situation has already gone far. It is getting worse and worse . . . The only way to correct that situation is at the ballot box."

Yearning for Nixon. Chairman Butler said that . . . the Democrats were yearning for Vice President Nixon to run in 1956 because he is "the worst Vice President in 35 years." Butler bore down: "He has trampled on the best traditions of American politics . . ." Nixon's coming good-will visit to the Middle East was "a good way to see the world at public expense ... I think the people are becoming aware of the fact that Nixon is not sincere . . ."

The Democrats at French Lick read with approval the remarks of Fellow Democrat Jack Kroll, director of the C.I.O.'s Political Action Committee. Speaking at Milwaukee, Kroll cried that President Eisenhower was running "the most corrupt Administration this country has had since the Harding regime . . . [It is] the Big Mink Administration . . ." While all this is going on, said Jack Kroll, the newspapers "continue to tell us how popular Ike is, what his golf score is and where he's vacationing this week."

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