Massachusetts

If President Eisenhower decides to retire, the Herter Bandwagon will roll overnight. It will be a sleek, high-powered vehicle, specially geared for competitive conditions in the 1956 race for the Republican nomination. Yet Massachusetts’ Governor Christian A. Herter is positively not a candidate so long as Eisenhower remains a possibility. In fact, the Governor believes that if the President’s health permits, he will run and be re-elected; and Mr. Herter hopes to contribute to that result. The Governor frowns on efforts of well-wishers to make him a contingent candidate. Representative John W. Heselton, who headed Herter’s gubernatorial drive in 1954, was promptly reproved when he attempted to initiate a direct mail campaign. State Chairman Elmer Nelson, another enthusiast, reluctantly accepted the Governor’s ban on promotional activities.

But there is another side of the picture. Mr. Herter is in the strong, dignified position of not seeking anything (probably not even another term as Governor). He simply is conspicuously available as a reasonable political facsimile of President Dwight Eisenhower if a replacement is needed.

SJ

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Sam M. Jones

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If President Eisenhower decides to retire, the Herter Bandwagon will roll overnight. It will be a sleek, high-powered vehicle, specially geared for competitive conditions in the 1956 race for the Republican nomination. Yet Massachusetts’ Governor Christian A. Herter is positively not a candidate so long as Eisenhower remains a possibility. In fact, the Governor believes that if the President’s health permits, he will run and be re-elected; and Mr. Herter hopes to contribute to that result. The Governor frowns on efforts of well-wishers to make him a contingent candidate. Representative John W. Heselton, who headed Herter’s gubernatorial drive in 1954, was promptly reproved when he attempted to initiate a direct mail campaign. State Chairman Elmer Nelson, another enthusiast, reluctantly accepted the Governor’s ban on promotional activities.

But there is another side of the picture. Mr. Herter is in the strong, dignified position of not seeking anything (probably not even another term as Governor). He simply is conspicuously available as a reasonable political facsimile of President Dwight Eisenhower if a replacement is needed.