Word: alcorn
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Ranged around their long, six-sided White House table, the President of the U.S. and his Cabinet listened attentively as the slender, curly-haired visitor got up to speak. The time: midsummer 1958. The man: Republican National Chairman Meade Alcorn. Gist of his remarks: a pessimistic forecast of November's congressional elections unless something was done...
...Alcorn knew what to do. Said he: "Mr. President, I strongly suggest you make a speech on Labor Day in which you recall the Congress and promise to keep the Congress in session until adequate labor-reform legislation is passed. The country wants it; the rank and file of labor wants it. It will help the country. And it certainly will help our party...
...knockout." Chimed Agriculture's Ezra Taft Benson: "I'm no politician. But I think it's a great idea." Finally the President got a word in. "By golly, I like that idea. But it's pretty political, isn't it, Meade?" Replied Alcorn: "And how! Mr. President. But it's good politics, and will be good for the country...
Eventually Ike left final judgment up to Labor Secretary James P. Mitchell; Mitchell sharply dissented, and Alcorn's proposal died (and in the November Democratic landslide many a Republican chance died because voters could not figure out where the national G.O.P. stood on labor reform...
...incident-and the tight-lipped manner of Alcorn in his defeat-were indicative of the way that quiet, resourceful Meade Alcorn operated (TIME, Jan. 19) as the G.O.P.'s top political boss. Last week the President grudgingly assented when Connecticut's Alcorn, after 26 turbulent months, offered his resignation (as of April 10) in order to return to his Hartford law firm (Alcorn, Bakewell & Smith) for urgent personal reasons...