Better Lale Than Never
SPIVACK, ROBERT G.
Better Late Than Never By Robert G. Spivack Washington, D.C. By any journalistic standards, I imagine that I qualify as a critic of the Eisenhower Administration and big-money Republicans...
...And what I want to say is this: A great many American commentators and editorial writers—and by no means only Southerners—have failed to rise to the occasion in Little Rock...
...This business of crying, "I told you so...
...I don't know how long he'll stay firm...
...With some of them, criticizing is just an old habit that they find it difficult to overcome...
...To many of these comments I say "amen...
...A liberal newsman's opinion President had been up to this point and his failure to demonstrate "leadership" before the situation came to a head...
...Instead, there was a display of blind partisanship, with sundry remarks about how quiescent the Kohkkt G. Spivack is Washington correspondent for the New York Post...
...There are times when both critics and supporters of the Chief Executive must close ranks against the Irresponsibles...
...Hence, some of the reaction to his decision to send troops into Little Rock may have surprised him...
...There is a growing feeling in the air that it is now safe to talk back to the White House, and several writers who had been notably restrained in their criticism are currently working overtime to point up Ike's deficiencies...
...and accusing him of doing things now he should have done long ago is a little too self-righteous for my taste...
...the President was talking to friends about the state of his health...
...He said that the duties and strains of his office bring about a certain physical "erosion" that goes beyond the normal slowing down of a man of advancing years...
...By any journalistic standards, I imagine that I qualify as a critic of the Eisenhower Administration and big-money Republicans generally...
...Not long before his heart attack two years ago...
...The Little Rock crisis was such a time...
...Still others are just sour little men trying to make enough noise to attract attention...
...Others can't quite bring themselves to utter words of praise even when you follow their advice...
...But they are no longer the issue...
...As far as Little Rock is concerned, if I were one of Ike's advisers I'd say: "Don't pay too much attention to what the critics are saying...
...The question now is whether Eisenhower took the action that the situation demanded, not, as Walter Lippmann suggests, whether it was the right time to take a vacation...
...I cite these qualifications lest anyone think, in view of what I am about to say, that I am getting soft or becoming a blind admirer of the President...
...Of course, he was late, but "better late than never" is still a valid principle...
...I doubt that he ever fully realized that there was bound to be an erosion in the influence of his office during his second term, because of the Constitutional amendment barring a third term...
...Columnist Marquis Childs, who knows his way around Newport, summed up the feeling there in these words: "Some are saying he waited too long, while in the South he will never be forgiven for having called out the Federal troops in a race issue...
...Although he has learned a lot, the President never seems to have acquired a really firm grasp of the ways of American politics...
...I believe that the President did...
...As far as some liberal writers are concerned, it seems to me that they are unhappy because the President finally showed the kind of firmness they had long advocated...
...Although I was disappointed by the reaction of some writers whom I had long admired, I cannot say that I was completely surprised...
...I have no desire to oversimplify a very complex issue, but, if we liberals are pleased that the President has finally moved in Little Rock, why not back him up...
...In his first term it seemed he could do no wrong, while now it must begin to look to him as though in the second term he can do nothing right...
...Much of the criticism that has followed his moves in that tragic affair is carping and unworthy of the best traditions of American journalism...
...And why not do so without sniping...
...There have been times at the White House press conference when I had a feeling that the President and Press Secretary Jim Hagerty both wished I was not there...
...I had expected more of my learned colleagues...
...But right now Eisenhower looks big—bigger than he has at any time since he took office...
Vol. 40 • October 1957 • No. 40
