Wheeling Intelligencer
Wheeling Ready To Receive Ike At 7:10 Tonight
GOP Dignitaries Converge on City To Greet Leader
By Dent Williams
September 24, 1952
of the Intelligencer Staff
The stage is set and tonight at 7:10 o'clock, the principal actor, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, arrives in Wheeling for a major political address at the Wheeling Island stadium, swinging the spotlight of the nation on West Virginia's power city.
Split-second timing will feature the GOP presidential nominee's seven-hour visit, and Chief of Police M. A. Baumann has made all necessary arrangements to follow the time schedule of Eisenhower's motorcade from the station to the McLure hotel, and thence to the stadium.
Chief Bauman will have 60 patrolmen in uniform tonight at various points of the tour and his force will be augmented by sergeants, detectives, 20 off-duty firemen and railroad police, who will be stationed at the train when it pulls in.
A number of West Virginia state police will arrive with the train from Parkersburg, and three or four deputy sheriffs will be on duty at the hotel and the stadium.
The General and his wife will disembark from the train promptly on arrival at the station, and Mayor Charles J. Schuck will present the GOP presidential hopeful with a huge gold-tinted key to the city. Mrs. Eisenhower will be presented with a bouquet of flowers by Mrs. Maude Murrin of the Ohio County Republican Women's club.
The General will then descend to the main part of the passenger station, and will board a closed car for the ride up Market street to the hotel.
At the hotel, General Ike will have a few minutes to wash up, but will then get down to business with a 10-minute conference with GOP leaders of Brooke, Hancock, Ohio and Marshall counties, to be followed by a brief reception in the Colonnade room of the hotel.
Three busloads of newsmen and radiomen will leave the hotel first with a motorcycle escort to the stadium, and then the remainder of the official party will be escorted to the Island.
After the estimated crowd of 15,000 persons is finally settled, police will return to the hotel to escort Ike to the Island, and he is scheduled to make the trip in a convertible, unless inclement weather prevents his using the convertible.
The General will be taken directly to the stadium, and will mount the rostrum after a three-minute ride around the cinder track of the stadium.
Preceding the General, Rush Holt, GOP gubernatorial candidate; Francis J. Love, candidate for Congress from the First district; and Chapman Revercomb, Charleston, will make brief addresses.
Love is expected to place emphasis on his personally-coined title of "debtocrats" in his attack on the administration in Washington.
Walter S. Hallanan, West Virginia national GOP committeeman and vice-chairmen [sic] of the national committee, will introduce the General to the throngs.
While all plans have been worked out to perfection, committee members will hold a last-minute conference at 12 o'clock noon in GOP headquarters on 12th street to discuss late developments.
On the arrangements committee are Norman Grieg, chairman, Milt Gutman, E. A. Hoffman, A. V. Dix, William E. Rine, Jack Serig, William Rempke, Clint Carrico and J. L. Grimes.
Preceding the official train, a bandwagon for the GOP ticket will pull into the city complete with a bevy of beautiful girls, who will distribute balloons, Ike buttons, posters, cards and other miscellaneous election supplies.
The bandwagon is sponsored by the Young Industry for Eisenhower and Nixon, and was organized by a group of young businessmen interested in the General's election. Ten huge barrage ballons [sic] will be inflated and paraded ahead of the General on his way to the hotel, and a baby elephant will be all dressed up in her best party clothes.
No new developments were reported yesterday, but workmen of Western Union and the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone company installed special lines in the train station, hotel and the stadium, for the use of some 80 newsmen riding the General's official campaign train.
The General's whirlwind tour is fast coming to a close with the tour scheduled to end Friday night in Richmond, Va., after stops in Baltimore, Md., and Washington, D. C.