Publicity Costs Handicap Democratic Campaign

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26857, 9 October 1952, Page 9

Publicity Costs Handicap Democratic Campaign

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, October 7. With election day only four weeks away, some leaders of the Democratic Party were today saying all was not going well with the campaign to elect the party’s candidate, Mr Adlai Stevenson, Reuter’s political correspondent said today.

The first difficulty, which the leaders frankly acknowledged, was the failure of the sources customarily backing the Democratic Party to produce enough campaign funds. The costs of campaigning have, increased, like everything else, since 1948. Television was particularly expensive.

Democratic leaders said that several times they had been able to scrape up enough money to buy time on commerciallyoperated networks only a few hours before a Stevenson programme had been due to begin.

The increased cost of nation-wide publicity was a greater handicap for the campaign of Mr Stevenson than that of General Eisenhower because General Eisenhower’s name was already a household word.

The correspondent said it would take millions of dollars worth of publicity to make Mr Stevenson’s name as familiar to the American man in the street as. that of General Eisenhower.

The lack of publicity was a very real political handicap, because the American people were famous for their preference for the “nationally-advertised product.” Some Democrats consoled themselves with the belief that the American love for celebrities accounted for the crowds gathering for General Eisenhower. They contended that fathers who lifted their sons to their shoulders to get a glimpse of the great .general would be more likely to vote for the continuation of prosperity under a Democratic Administration than to give their political support to a national hero. * The fact remained that for the last 25 years a publicity-conscious generation had, except in one election, always elected the better-known candidate. The exception was the defeat of President Herbert Hoover in 1932 by Mr Franklin D. Roosevelt, when the depression provided a profound emotional issue not involved in the present election.

President Truman today said he had made a very serious mistake when he once thought General Eisenhower, the Republican Presidential candidate, qualified for the Presidency. He said General Eisenhower “has betrayed every principle about our foreign policy and our national defence that I thought he believed in. It has been a sad experience for me.” Mr Truman said a President of the ■United States had the aWful responsibilitv of deciding whether to use the atomic bomb, and he must be a man

“who can stand up to political pressure when he has to make tough decisions.” Mr Truman also accused General Eisenhower of trying to win votes by playing upon the casualties and sacrifices in Korea and talking about “blunders” that led up to Korea when he “joined in the decision to pull our troops out of Korea in the first place.” The Democratic Presidential candidate, Mr Adlai Stevenson, said General Eisenhower was giving comfort to the Russians by describing American prosperity as war prosperity.