The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT White House On the Farm By William E. Bohn In the first place, there is nothing especially grand about the President's house. It is a good, solid, comfortable-looking dwelling;...
...I remember well the first time I saw him...
...It is obviously the place of a man who wants a farm rather than a palace or a summer resort...
...The President said he wanted quiet," they said...
...Going the wrong way, we wound along a road which carried us up a slope and so gave us a bird's-eye view of the whole Presidential homestead...
...And now this man, who commanded the armies which rolled over Hitler, has bought a farm and built a house...
...We really saw more of the much-publicized place than we intended to...
...Well, we want him to have what he wants...
...It is all simple and modest and genuine--the way he likes things...
...Eisenhower came to settle down, they both wanted something solid, something real, something permanent-looking...
...I was sitting on the platform with the newspapermen...
...We had lunch at the old Gettysburg Hotel, where I have more than once taken a meal or spent the night...
...It has not been much emphasized in news stories that this famous place is practically a part of the old battlefield...
...He had come from long months spent as commander of the most powerful army in human history...
...Many Washington people, especially newspapermen, have become patrons...
...It has always been a quiet and unpretentious country hotel--but good...
...When he and Mrs...
...The thought of a farm coupled with the thought of the ancestral state suggested solidity, security, comfort, continuity...
...I don't like the present administration...
...When I was driven around old Gettysburg on the day after Thanksgiving by an indulgent host and hostess, I had no intention of doing a lot of gaping...
...And he would call back to them, designating each one by name: "Hello, Jack"--or Tom, or Harry, or whatever the name happened to be...
...How would he act...
...This is not a political article...
...There were a few cars, which suggested that there were guests, but there were no curious sightseers, no snoopers...
...And there is nothing showy about the barn or any other feature of the place...
...A stranger never would have guessed that there was anything special in the neighborhood...
...What struck me as I looked down was the prevailing peace...
...This man has spent his life going wherever the Army sent him...
...It was when he first returned from the battlefields of Europe...
...I don't like the Republican party...
...This was no show, no bluff...
...That great meeting exploded in a froth of enthusiasm...
...Everyone agreed that Gettysburg was taking the great change in its stride...
...But Dwight D. Eisenhower as a human being I like very much...
...The one thing he did not do was to act like a conquering hero...
...No one could doubt his sincerity...
...I think I can understand how this man Eisenhower happened to buy this place and fix it up unpretentiously as he has done...
...What was he like...
...On our way home, we lost our way while in search of the famous Gutzon Borglum statue to the soldiers of North Carolina...
...First, we motored past it...
...As he advanced toward the platform, men all through the audience kept shouting to him, "Hello, Ike...
...And when he delivered his short address, this victorious general asked for peace in the most simple and straightforward way...
...I don't like a lot of the people the President has around him...
...The neighbors have already accepted him, and they unite in hoping that he will live long to enjoy his new home...
...Politics has nothing to do with it...
...It has had, of course, a great influx of new business...
...In his plain uniform, with his eyes shining, he was just a happy man coming home to his people...
...When he reached the platform, a good many of the ex-officers reached out and grasped his hand...
...Suddenly the General of the Army came through the door...
...there are others much more pretentious in the neighborhood...
...He was brought up on a farm out in Kansas, but his ancestors came from Pennsylvania...
...The American Legion was holding its convention in one of the New York armories, and the great place was filled to suffocation with veterans of the First World War...
...I naturally had my attention centered on this man who was coming down the aisle...
...The bus boys, the waiters, the girl at the newsstand--they all said, yes, they had more customers than they used to have, but they still had plenty of room and plenty of good Pennsylvania food...
...There was genuine affection there...
...I was near enough to see the eyes of these men...
...To my delight, I found everyone as friendly and hospitable as in the old days...
...There was only one person in sight, a guard in a little booth by the gate...
...It is nothing more than a regular Pennsylvania farm--well-kept and prosperous-looking, with black-angus cattle cropping the grass in the pasture...
...Pennsylvania goes Democratic by a big majority...
...People stood and waved and shouted in an agony of adoration...
...That is exactly what they have...
Vol. 38 • December 1955 • No. 49
