The Key West Citizen

Press Secretary Agrees It's A 'Legitimate Issue' In Campaign

Hagerty Says GOP Will Show Records Of Ike's Health

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

President Eisenhower's press secretary, James C. Hagerty, agrees with some Democratic spokesmen that the President's health is a "legitimate issue" of the upcoming presidential campaign.

And Democratic backers of Adlai Stevenson were hailing Stevenson's presidential primary election victory over Sen. Estes Kefauver in Oregon Friday as signaling a Stevenson groundswell "that cannot be stopped."

Hagerty was interviewed by Representatives Boggs and Eberh, Louisiana Democrats on a television show transcribed for use by a New Orleans station.

Agreeing Eisenhower's health is a fit topic for political discussion, he added: "We will have legitimate answers and complete medical records to show the condition of the President at any time during the campaign."

He had said earlier Eisenhower would undergo one or two further physical examinations during 1956, but did not specify any dates. The President was examined and found in good physical condition last weekend.

In other weekend political developments, James A. Finnegan, campaign manager for Stevenson, called Friday's Oregon results a "smashing victory" paving the way for Stevenson triumphs in the Florida (May 29) and California (June 5) primaries.

Stevenson and Kefauver again clash head on in both elections, the last big hurdles in the Democratic intraparty struggle. The two candidates are set for a joint discussion in Miami tonight on a nationally televised program.

An Associated Press tabulation showed, meanwhile, that Stevenson now leads the Tennessee senator 148½ to 127 in pledged and publicly committed delegate votes for the Democratic nomination.

A total of 686½ is required for nomination.

Stevenson and Kefauver are expected to split Florida's 28 Democratic convention votes, but in the California test the winner gets all 68.

Democrats in Oregon said, former Gov. Douglas McKay's victory margin in the GOP fight for nomination to oppose Democratic Sen. Wayne Morse in November is very good omen for Morse.

Monroe Sweetland, Oregon Democratic national committeeman, said "a clear majority of registered Republicans" voted against McKay, "whereas only a tiny fraction of Democrats" voted Morse.

Almost complete returns from Oregon showed McKay got 118,105 votes to his three opponents' combined 121,531. Morse beat his lone Democratic opponent 191,159 to 39,221.

Elsewhere, Kefauver told an Armed Forces Day audience in Ft. Campbell, Ky., it would be "criminally foolhardy" for the United States to relax because of signs of Soviet "softness."

"Until the free world and the Soviet-dominated world can find a firm basis for lasting peace . . . we have no choice but to provide for the protection of ourselves and of our friends and allies."

In St. Petersburg, Fla., Stevenson called for a liberalized social security program, a lower retirement age for women and aid for the totally disabled. He said Republicans blocked such legislation in the past.

Gov. Averell Harriman of New York entered a New York hospital for a minor operation.

In a message read for him to a Washington convention of the Electrical Consumers Committee, Harriman continued Democratic attacks on the power policy of the Eisenhower administration. He said public power principles "have been seriously endangered."

In Indianapolis, Democratic National Chairman Paul Butler told