Scott Lucas, Everett Dirksen; and the 1950 Senate election in Illinois

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Spring 2002 by Deason, Brian

If Stevenson did less than one might have expected, Douglas did more than one would have asked. In his memoirs, he wrote that Lucas had been a good Majority Leader overall, and that he had also provided solid support to candidate Douglas in 1948 and afterward to Douglas the freshman Senator. Furthermore, Congress had adjourned later than usual, which put Lucas at a disadvantage in the campaign. For all of these reasons, Douglas wrote, he had felt obligated to campaign vigorously on Lucas's behalf. He obtained "a sound-equipped station wagon" and then went on the road with a driver named Joseph Tierney. He continued: "For two weeks I covered the streets of Chicago, speaking from twelve to fifteen times a day, and during the final three weeks carried out a high-pressure downstate tour."38

On October 22, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a Democratic newspaper, ran an article on the Lucas-Dirksen race entitled, "Scott Lucas and Everett Dirksen in Hot Fight In Illinois Over Senate Seat-Outcome in Doubt." The author, Joe Driscoll, wrote that the candidates were now locked in a "knockdown and drag-out battle with no holds or punches barred." Dirksen had labeled Lucas "a political coward, a contemptible liar, a scoundrel and a revolving-door Senator who faces two ways on important issues." Lucas, Driscoll wrote, had claimed "that Dirksen trifles with American security and the lives of American boys in Korea in order to enlist the support of the isolationist, Truman-hating Chicago Tribune."

Driscoll quoted Lucas saying that in 1948, after a trip to Europe, Dirksen had claimed that the Marshall Plan would have his support for the next 12 years. After that Dirksen had accepted an invitation to visit the headquarters of the Chicago Tribune. "There is a fellow up there [publisher Robert McCormick] who talks to people who want to run in the Republican primaries. And if you don't talk to him you don't get on the ticket." Lucas stated that after this meeting, as far as Dirksen was concerned the Marshall Plan was "a rathole and a bottomless pit into which the American taxpayers were pouring their money." Driscoll had spoken to Dirksen, and Dirksen had said: "I wear no man's halter... I am the same Ev Dirksen I was when I was being pummeled for years in the Tribune's No. 1 editorials." The Tribune now strongly supported him; he did not know why the newspaper's policy toward him had changed. He had visited McCormick, but he had also visited the offices of the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago Sun-Times. During his talk with McCormick, the latter "asked no commitments of me and I made none." This varies from the account in Louella Dirksen's book, noted above.

Regarding the Marshall Plan, Dirksen said: "It's not correct to say I've flip-flopped on the Marshall Plan. I change my views only insofar as the times change." He said he was unhappy with the lack of cooperation with the United States on the part of the Marshall Plan recipients. Furthermore, there was a need for more Congressional oversight of the Plan's implementation. Regarding "socialized medicine," Driscoll noted that while both opposed it, Lucas had said little about it and Dirksen had said much, including: "Socialized medicine has brought more tombstones to England than any other contributory cause." Driscoll wrote that Lucas had a more consistent record generally, usually supporting the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, though with flashes of independence.