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Len Hall's unwavering conviction enabled him to keep the Republican elephant moving forward at a time when most Republicans were sucking their thumbs. Before the President had made up his own mind, Hall decided that he just had to run again if it was humanly possible, because there was no other Republican available who could touch him as a candidate. Adding his political facts, the chairman concluded that Ike, as a cardiac case, could never undertake another exhausting whistle-stop tour of the nation, and that, anyway, in the era of telecommunications, the 21-in. screen was the best political platform ever devised.
Accordingly, Hall scheduled the "Salute to Ike" dinners around the country last month (TIME, Jan. 30) and raked in a neat $4,000,000 profit, which he split with the 48 state committees—an unprecedented campaign fund to have on hand nine months before Election Day. Meanwhile, Hall shopped around for radio and TV time next fall, shrewdly reserving strategic time segments before or after such top-rated shows as This Is Your Life and The $64,000 Question, when he could count on audiences of 50 million or more. Through the foresight of his party chairman, Ike is certain to have the greatest audiences in political history when he goes before the electorate.
Three-Ring Circus. In his capacity as mahout of the Republican elephant, Len Hall has one of the most sensitive jobs in politics. As G.O.P. chairman, Hall is the producer of a circus with three rings: the National Committee, which handles the presidential and vice presidential campaigns and maps out overall party strategy, and its two auxiliaries on Capitol Hill, the Senate and House Campaign Committees, which concentrate on local congressional campaigns.
As head of the party, Dwight Eisenhower is the supreme commander of the National Committee. He has delegated much of his authority to Hall and welcomes Hall's advice. The Capitol Hill committees, on the other hand, are run by the Senators and Representatives themselves, pretty much after their own independent fashion. Most of the top Republicans who control the Campaign Committees are men who rose to power on their own efforts during the long Democratic years when the Republican National Committee could give them little or no help. They have maintained themselves in office by do-it-yourself methods, and they feel little allegiance to the National Committee or to Leonard Hall.
Chairman Hall would like to come to the aid of his party in two specific ways. First, he hopes to regain some of the lost party discipline on Capitol Hill and throughout the nation. His best weapon in this effort is the popularity of the President, who now numbers among his supporters some leaders, e.g., Ohio's Senator John Bricker, of the party's right wing.
The other hallmark which the chairman would like to put on national politics is the extension of the two-party system into the South. Hall believes that Ike will carry both Florida and Texas again this year. He is working to enlarge the G.O.P. enclaves of 1952, last week had two organizational task forces working in South Carolina and Mississippi. "I am determined," says Chairman Hall, "that we are at least going to have sound, healthy organizations in all of the 48 states."