Dartmouth Men Active In the Big '52 Fight

WHATEVER the outcome of the Presidential election next month, there will be Dartmouth men in top campaign positions who worked hard to swing the victory to their side of the political fence. The "Dartmouth in Politics" movement that flourished about 15 years ago, under the stimulus primarily of the late Professors James Parmelee Richardson '99 and Harold J. Tobin '17, may have little direct bearing on the present burst of political activity by graduates of the College, but it is easy to imagine how pleased those two worthy gentlemen would have been to find so many Dartmouth men holding positions of major importance in the campaign forces of General Eisenhower and Governor Stevenson. It is doubtful if graduates of the College have ever before had quite so much to do, on both sides, with "the great quadrennial event in American politics," as Professor Richardson preferred to call it.

The ALUMNI MAGAZINE, being a nonpartisan family journal, must be careful in this article to give a balanced account of the Democratic and Republican officials who bear Dartmouth class numerals after their names. But with the Republicans holding a numerical edge and having, in Governor Sherman Adams '20, the topranking man on either side, it seems permissible to begin in that political pasture. It is especially interesting that three Dartmouth Trustees Sherman Adams '20 (R), Sigurd S. Larmon '14 (R) and Beardsley Ruml '15 (D) - are among the alumni involved in this account. And it is also interesting that both Presidential candidates have as right-hand adviser and aide a Dartmouth man. General Eisenhower, in fact, has two in Governor Adams, his chief of staff, and Arthur H. Vandenberg Jr. '28, his executive assistant. Carl McGowan '32, legislative counsel to Governor Stevenson, has been described by some writers as the closest assistant and policy adviser the Governor has.

The campaign role of greatest importance, however, is that being played by Governor Sherman Adams of New Hampshire. The chief executive of the Granite State took leave of absence from his state post on August 1 in order to devote full time to the Eisenhower campaign. Acting as Governor in his absence is Blaylock Atherton '22, president of the State Senate.

Governor Adams' relationship to General Eisenhower has been defined as that of chief of staff under the supreme commander. He is the No. i man on the General's personal staff, as distinct from the National Republican Committee., and his major responsibility is to act as the Republican candidate's personal liaison with the national committee in the development of campaign plans and strategy. Governor Adams has his headquarters in Washington, where he formerly served as Congressman from New Hampshire. His dealings with the chairman of the National Republican Committee, Arthur E. Summerfield, are not with another Dartmouth man but they are with a Dartmouth father-the father of Arthur E. Summerfield Jr. '44 of Flint, Mich.

Governor Adams was a major figure in the successful fight to win the Republican nomination for General Eisenhower. An early backer of the General, he was the leading architect of the New Hampshire primary sweep that had such psychological effect on the pre-convention campaign, and in the convention itself he successfully filled the job of Eisenhower's floor manager. This record of political skill and hard-working support induced General Eisenhower to make Governor Adams his top political aide.

Another key figure on the Republican candidate's "team" is Arthur Vandenberg Jr. '28, son of the late Senator Vandenberg of Michigan. As executive assistant on Eisenhower's personal staff, he has a mobile job and is likely to be with the General wherever he goes. One of his chief duties is that of being in charge of the staff at Eisenhower's personal headquarters.

Mr. Vandenberg, who was administrative assistant to his father in the Senate for more than ten years and who served in the Air Force during World War II, was head of the Citizens-for-Eisenhower Committee in the early months of this year. In order to continue this work he dropped his personal plans to run for the U. S. Senate in Michigan. He next went to Washington to work with Senator Lodge, national chairman of the pre-convention campaign, and when General Eisenhower returned to this country he became executive head of the General's own campaign staff, with duties very much like those he now has.

ON the Democratic side, Governor Stevenson also has created a personal staff to supplement the campaign activities of the Democratic National Committee. One of the very top men in this group of capable young administrators, many of whom have had legal training, is Carl McGowan '32, former professor of law at Northwestern University. Mr. McGowan has been closely associated with Governor Stevenson in the Illinois state capital since 1949, when he gave up his professorship at Northwestern to become chief legal counsel to the Governor. In that capacity he has had a wide variety of administrative duties, including general oversight of the legislative program. Now that Governor Stevenson is campaigning for the Presidency of the United States, Mr. Mc-Gowan is credited with being a great deal more than just legal adviser within the Governor's inner council.

In fact, since Mr. Stevenson's nomination the press has displayed great interest in Mr. McGowan's exact importance on the Governor's personal staff. Time calls him "Stevenson's right-hand man." TheNew York Times reports: "Down the street in the [executive] mansion is Carl Mc-Gowan, 41 years old, former Northwestern University law professor, who is regarded as the Governor's closest adviser. He has been described as the 'Governor's conscience' and the man who exercises the most influence on policy."

During the last war Mr. McGowan served in the Naval Reserve for three years and during part of that period was special assistant to Under-Secretary of the Navy Ralph Bard, at the same time that Mr. Stevenson was assistant to Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox. It was this Navy association for nearly two years that later led to Mr. McGowan's joining Governor Stevenson's staff in January 1949. After getting his law degree at Columbia in 1936, Mr. McGowan was with the New York law firm of Devevoise, Stevenson, Plimpton and Page for three years. Right after the war, from 1946 to 1948, he was with the Washington firm of Douglas and Proctor and there was an associate of John F. Meek '33, now Vice President and Treasurer of the College.

Sharing both Dartmouth and Democratic affiliation with Mr. McGowan in the current campaign is Beardsley Ruml '15, Alumni Trustee of the College, who in August accepted the job of chairman of the finance committee of the Democratic National Committee, in charge of fund raising. Mr. Ruml, the personal choice of Governor Stevenson for the job, now has his headquarters in Washington, where in addition to directing the Democrats' efforts to raise large sums of money he may play some part in the preparation of Governor Stevenson's talks on finances and taxation. As father of the "pay as you go" income tax plan, Mr. Ruml deserves the rating of expert in this field. According to a quote in The WashingtonPost, one practical Democrat rated him as an expert also in "knowing where the money is."

Mr. Ruml was once a registered Republican. He voted for Franklin D. Roosevelt, however, and in recent years has preferred to be listed as a political independent. Acceptance of the post of Democratic finance chief has clearly established his side of the fence in the current Presidential campaign and has also given him his first major political job. Active for many years in the field of public and corporate finance, Mr. Ruml at the present time is a strong advocate of tax cuts for both business and individuals, predicting that these are in prospect no matter how the November election turns out.

THE third Dartmouth Trustee who is actively involved in the campaign is as avowedly Republican as his colleague on the Board, Governor Adams. Sigurd S. Larmon '14 of New York, president of the Young and Rubicam advertising agency, was national vice chairman of Citizens for Eisenhower and, as might be expected, was head of publicity and publ'c relations for that grass-roots organization. Since July he has been a member of the campaign advisory committee of which Senator Lodge is chairman.

Mr. Larmon, who has been an advertising executive since 1926 and president of the huge Young and Rubicam agency since 1941, has a deep interest in public affairs. Last year he and Thomas W. Lapham won a Freedoms Foundation firstplace award for their Look magazine irticle, "Primer for Americans." In March the U. S. State Department named Mr. Larmon on a committee of leading American business executives to help the Government carry out its world information program by means of the Voice of America and other channels.

As recently as August 21 the Dartmouth-GOP alliance took another prominent turn with the announcement that Fred C. Scribner '30 of Portland, Maine, had been named General Counsel for the Republican National Committee. Mr. Scribner has been a national committeeman from Maine since 1948 and has been one of the Republican leaders in his state for the past 15 years. His political record reads: Chairman, Republican Committee of Portland, 1936-40; Chairman, Maine Council of Young Republican Clubs, 1938-40; Member of Maine Republican State Committee, since 1940; Chairman of the Executive Committee, Maine Republican State Committee, since 1944; Republican National Committeeman from Maine, since 1948. Mr. Scribner declared himself to be an Eisenhower man before the convention and, along with his National Committee duties, is in the thick of the campaign in Maine this fall.

Another state leader on the Republican side is Robert P. Burroughs '2l of Manchester, N. H., who went to the Chicago convention as an Eisenhower delegate and led the General's forces in the Credentials Committee. Mr. Burroughs was Republican National Committeeman for 12 years, from 1932 to 1944, resigning because of the pressure of his insurance business. The prospect of nominating General Eisenhower accelerated his political interest and activity this spring, and he made a trip to Europe to meet the General and learn his views. With Governor Adams in Washington, Mr. Burroughs is one of the recognized leaders of the Eisenhower campaign organization in the state.

OF all the convention activities in which Dartmouth men engaged, those of Walter Johnson '37, chairman of the history department at the University of Chicago, produced perhaps the most momentous results. When nearly everyone else was willing to accept Governor Stevenson's "no" at its face value, Professor Johnson went to work to build up a Draft Stevenson movement. He filled the role of national chairman in this movement and from headquarters at the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago worked ceaselessly to keep the draft idea alive and to enlist leading Democrats to the cause. Before and during the convention that did nominate Governor Stevenson he was constantly conferring with delegation leaders, and those who favored the Illinois governor, but lacked an organization turned to the Stevenson for President headquarters as a natural rallying point. The choice of Governor Stevenson by the Democratic convention was the result of many factors, but it is not likely that any one of them was more important than the movement fathered by Walter Johnson.

The Chicago educator owes some of his long and active interest in politics to the influence of Prof. Allen R. Foley '20 of Dartmouth's history department. Even as a Dartmouth senior he took to the stump for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936. After graduate work at the University of Chicago, he joined the history faculty there in 1940 and advanced steadily to become head of the department. His name appears on a great many books. He wrote The Battle AgainstIsolation in 1944, was co-author of TheUnited States-Experiment in Democracy in 1947, edited the Selected Letters of William Allen White and wrote William AllenWhite's America also in 1947, and edited the Stettinius account of Yalta, Rooseveltand the Russians, in 1949. Almost ready for release is a volume based on the papers of Joseph Grew, former ambassador to Japan.

A citizen's effort simiiar to that made by Professor Johnson is the work of Richard F. Babcock '40, Chicago lawyer, who some months ago took leave from the firm of Coffman, Overton and Babcock to serve as Executive Director of, the Stevenson for Governor Committee and who is now functioning in the Chicago office of Volunteers for Stevenson.

Mr. Babcock, who as a Dartmouth undergraduate was Senior Fellow, class valedictorian and Barrett Cup winner, was top man in his law class at the University of Chicago after the war. He has been actively interested in public affairs in Illinois and now, with Governor Stevenson as the Democratic nominee, has broadened out into the national field.

This summary of the political activities of Dartmouth men in the current Presidential campaign is by no means the complete story. The editors realize that there must be serious omissions, and they will warmly welcome information filling out the record. Sufficient ground has been covered, however, to indicate the scope of Dartmouth's two-party participation in the campaign and the unusual high-level basis on which this is being carried on. In the light of Dartmouth's commitment to instilling in her men a sense of responsibility for participating in public affairs, there is a special satisfaction in today's evidence that this purpose is being realized in a very concrete way.

REPUBLICAN HIGH COMMAND: General Eisenhower holds a conference with Governor Sherman Adams '20 (I), his political chief of staff, and Arthur Vandenberg Jr. '28, his executive assistant.

WALTER JOHNSON '37, the head of the history department of the University of Chicago, who fathered the effective Draft Stevenson movement.

THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE, Governor Adlai Stevenson, shown with Carl McGowan '32, his legislative counsel for three years and one of his most intimate advisers in the current campaign.

DARTMOUTH TRUSTEES on opposite sides of the political fence this fall: Above, Beardsley Ruml '15, finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and, below, Sigurd S. Larmon '14, member of the Republican campaign advisory committee.

DARTMOUTH TRUSTEES on opposite sides of the political fence this fall: Above, Beardsley Ruml '15, finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and, below, Sigurd S. Larmon '14, member of the Republican campaign advisory committee.