NIXON BRINGS WHISTLE-STOP TOUR TO REGION

As a senator from California, well known for his anti-communism efforts, Richard Nixon made a whistle stop campaign swing through Cape Girardeau on Oct. 21, 1952, as the vice presidential running mate of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower.

Forty Republicans from the 10th Congressional District, headed by Cape County Republican Chairman Rush H. Limbaugh Jr. took a chartered bus to Festus early that day to join Nixon's 13-car campaign train that made stops in Ste. Genevieve and McBride before arriving in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Accompanied by his wife Pat, Nixon's train arrived at the Frisco passenger station at 1 p.m. and was greeted by a crowd of about 1,000. He was quickly taken to Houck Field House for his speech, where he was greeted by a friendly, cheering crowd of between 4,000 and 4,500 people, as he lashed out at the Truman Administration. Nixon took issue with smears that had been made by opponents of the GOP ticket. He also played on the need to have strong leadership to combat the spread of communism.

Said Nixon: "I want to tell today why Harry Truman has been one of the worst presidents we ever had. Harry Truman said that the primary issue of this campaign is peace and prosperity. This opinion has been voiced by both Truman and (Adlai) Stevenson, Stevenson echoing it with a Harvard accent. But we want peace and prosperity at the same time. We don't want prosperity built on war. We want prosperity built on peace."

Nixon charged that Truman's lack of leadership had diminished the role of the United States as a military power, and that "Red spies" had enabled Russia to get the atomic bomb five years earlier than it should have.

Nixon contended that replacing Truman with Stevenson "would be replacing one weak sister with another."

After he finished speaking, Nixon asked Limbaugh about the size of Cape Girardeau. Weighing the population with the size of the crowd, Nixon commented that for a city this size and for a noon hour meeting, he thought the Cape Girardeau rally was one of the best he had had in the campaign.

As he left the field house, Nixon greeted the crowd and signed autographs. He was taken to the airport where two DC-3 planes were waiting to take the entourage that included 75 members of the national press corps to Springfield and Joplin, where Nixon was scheduled to speak later in the day.

Nixon also took time to sign autographs and shake hands at the airport, as he was greeted by a group of about 150 people mostly from the Illmo-Fornfelt-Ancell area.