There was "no trouble at all" according to Erickson.  "Everything went slick as a whistle," the chief stated after the motorcade had left Ames on its way toward Des Moines.

Ames people watching the parade cheered heartily at the sight of the President, however none seemed to follow the admonishment of one ardent Republican before the parade for all fellow Republicans to "step back and let the Democrats up front where they can get a look at a good president."

One little girl was heard saying, in a rather disappointed tone, as she left after watching the parade, "Mommy, I didn't get any presents."  Asked to explain by her mother, it turned out that the little girl had confused the words president and present.

Thursday night in Boone, where the President and his wife stayed with Mrs. Eisenhower's aunt and uncle, the Joel Carlsons, Presidential press secretary James Hagerty told a Tribune reporter, "Just this afternoon President Eisenhower and I were talking about Ames.  He remarked that he remembered Ames, commenting that it had a college population in addition to its regular population.  At the Carlson home, Hagerty stated in the press conference, the Eisenhowers were planning to spend a quiet evening visiting after a dinner of consommé, steamed fried chicken, mashed potatoes with chicken gravy, buttered beets, broccoli, vanilla ice cream and coffee.

Hagerty continued to say that Mrs. Eisenhower, who hasn't visited in the Carlson home since nine years ago, planned to call her mother in Denver.  The Eisenhowers retired early.

At the press conference, Hagerty stated that the time of the Eisenhowers' departure from Boone had been changed from 9:30 to 9.  The Eisenhowers stopped briefly this morning at the house where Mrs. Eisenhower was born.

The Ike they saw in Iowa Thursday and today was a man who now appears completely at home in his job, was relaxed, affable and happy.  In his 1952 appearance, from a platform on the west side of the Iowa Capitol building, General Eisenhower read a prepared speech. [view photos] He seemed somewhat ill at ease.  He had a pair of black heavy-rimmed executive style glasses which he frequently put on and took off during his address.  Sometimes he read from the manuscript without the glasses.  He clearly gave the impression of a man suddenly thrust into an assignment with which he hadn't yet become accustomed.

But President Eisenhower in Iowa this week was an entirely different candidate.  He was completely in control of the situation while at the same time he was happy and relaxed.  And he's become quite a politician in his own right, too.  The barber in our building has it figured about right.  He said: "That fellow is a politician.  Any time you find a President who is willing to spend some time in his wife's old hometown, just meeting the folks, is bound to win votes."

That was the tone of the Eisenhower visit.  It was a folksy visit, one in which people could see him and he could see people.  He hadn't even planned to make a speech at Colfax.  When the plowing match officials heard this a few days ago they threw up their hands.  "He's got to make a speech," they told liaison officials already here.  The White House was contacted and the President agreed to make a few remarks.  But it wasn't a major farm address.  That will come in a few days from Illinois, where he is to appear.

Elaborate details and minute checking precede any presidential visit.  White House security men had been in Iowa two weeks ahead arranging plans for President Eisenhower's visit...