The victory belonged to the men of Wall Street

The men behind
Eisenhower

T is striking that the names of
the men who have really hoisted
General Dwight Eisenhower into

the White House are in the main°

little known in the United States,
and searcely known at all in other
countries, except perhaps Canada.

Who has
Aldrich, Thomas
Thomas Watson?

heard of Winthrop
Parkinson,

Or of Batten, Barton, Durstine
and Osborne?

Or Arthur Summerfield? ‘Or
of Emmett J. Hughes?
The first three are the most

important. They are, respective-
ly, chairman of the Chase National
Bank, president of the Equitable
Life Assurance Society, and chair-
man of International Business
Machines.

‘All three are trustees of Colum-
bia University, New York.

As trustees they arranged that
the presidency of Columbia be of-
fered to Eisenhower, four years
ago, as his introduction to civilian
affairs after a lifetime in the army.

They saw in the affable, not
very intelligent, general the man
they were looking for.

Associated with Aldrich, Park-
inson and Watson are the Rocke-
feller, Mellon, Morgan and Du-
pont financial groups, who come
as near as anyone to running Am-
erica. :

They were looking for a man
with sufficient popular appeal to
revitalise the thoroughly discredit-
ed Republican party.

This party has always been the

‘most direct representative of U.S.

finance-capital.

With economic storms blowing
up and a foreign policy which—in
an old phrase—carries war as a
cloud carries rain, Morgan and the
others needed a facade. Dwight
Eisenhower is to be that facade.
e . :
The last of the big groups to
get behind him was Dupont (nylon,
chemicals, explosives. atom
bomb). Dupont was brought near-
er to Eisenhower by the appoint-
ment of Arthur Summerfield to
the chairmanship of the Republi-

By DEREK KARTUN

'

can national committee, the party’s
governing body.

Summerfield is one of the larg-
est motor dealers in the land of
huge automotive sales. That links
him to General ‘Motors which, in
turn, is controlled by Dupont.

There are other tight and un-
breakable links between Eisen-
hower and big business, but those
are the most direct.

Now for the quartet, Batten,
Barton, Durstine and Osborne.

These gentlemen are _ neither
bankers nor industrialists, nor are
they politicians. They make up

“the most successful advertising
agency along the whole stretch of
_ (Madison Avenue, New York—home
of fabulous advertising industry.

This firm managed the Eisen-
hower campaign.

‘On his whistle-stop tours, which
did so much to win him his big
total votes, representatives of
Batten, Barton and company mov-
ed ahead of the general’s train,
planning “spontaneous” demon-
strations everywhere.

,» They acted as cheer leaders,

.

meeting organisers, providers of
bunting and paper hats and tin
whistles.

They were to be seen, on meet-
ing platfortns operating like so
many ringmasters at so many
circuses.

Finally, Emmett J. Hughes.

Hughes is senior editor of Life,
the glossy reactionary magazine
which has supported the extension
of the war in Korea.

He was one of the men who
wrote Eisenhower’s speeches. In
the closing stages of the campaign
Emmett initiated the Eisenhower
“T shall go to Korea.”

There is little Goubt in anyone’s
mind but that this piece of mon-
strous demagogy, falling like a
promise of peace among a popu-
lation heartily sickened and scar-
ed by the Korean war, did more
than any other single thing to win
the election for Eisenhower.

&

Now, of course, Eisenhower has
to go to Korea. And he can only
do one of three things.

He can end the war. He can
extend it. Or he can endorse the
present bloody stalemate.

To end the war would run di-
rectly counter to the policy of the
business men who have done s0
well out of it and pushed Eisen-
hower into politics to ensure they
would continue to do well.

To extend the war to People’s
China may meet the wishes of the
Republican party’s wildest men,
led by ‘the China Lobby,” which
is runi by Senator Knowland, some-
times called “the Senator from
Formosa.”

It would put the United States
in trouble with her allies, includ-
ing Britain, and is unlikely, at this
stage anyway, to commend itself to
the top Republican leaders who
are doing well enough from the
limtied war.

If Eisenhower goes to Korea,
looks around and still insists in the
illegal United States demand that
Korean and Chinese prisoners be
retained, then his trip will have
been a failure.

Either way the people of the
United States are in for
pleasant disillusionment—the first

an un-

of very many to come.
€
_ What do the U.S. people now
have as a result of voting the Re-
publicans into power?

They believed they were “voting
for a change”—an end of corrup-

tion at home and war abroad.

But they will
things.

not get these

They have handed power to men
who sponsored the Taft-Hartley
slave labor law, which has already

cost the trade unions around a
million dollars in_fines and is crip-
Under

Eisenhower, Senator Taft will be

pling militant ‘unionism.

the -most powerful man in Con-
gress.

They will have Congress next
year ‘dominated by the old coali-
tion of Republicans and Southern
Negro-hating Democrats — with
the centre of gravity shifted now
towards the Republicans.

It will be, without a shadow of
doubt, the most reactionary and
dangerous Congress in recent his-
tory.

They will have as president a
big business stooge,
obedient Harry

even more

than Truman

(which is saying a great deal).

In Richard Nixon they have as
vice-president the man who refus-
ed to explain the notorious $18,000
fund, and who is one of. the chief
leaders of the attack on constitu-
tional rights.

The people of the U.S. are en-
tering a period in which economic
crisis looms {before them, and they
are committed to a foreign policy
that is aggressive, adventurist and
thoroughly dangerous.

They have as masters men who
will try to solve the capitalist sys-
tem’s problems at home by smash-
ing unions, and abroad by waving
the sword at “allies” and oppo-
nents alike — and perhaps by fur-
ther Koreas.

The Republicans’ foreign policy
“platform” was written by John
Foster Dulles, the man who or-
ganized the rearming of Japan and
who favors the “liberation” of so-
cialist countries.

When illusions have been shed
and, truths known, the U.S. people
will find themselves faced with the
task of organizing a broad pro-
gressive coalition, based upon the
organized workers, to fight for
union rights, for democracy and
peace.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 21, 1952 — PAGE 9

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