June 30, 1962 - Former President Eisenhower said today that the Republicans were the party of business and that he was “proud of the label.” General Eisenhower was speaking to about 100 party leaders who met on his Gettysburg farm in the first All-Republican Conference. The conference was organized, party leaders said, to bring them together periodically, to keep party activities in the public eye, and to provide a consultative body for Republican officeholders. In welcoming the conferees, General Eisenhower issued a strong appeal for businessmen to enter more fully into politics — preferably Republican politics. He also appealed for Republican unity and said he had “gotten so I despise the term liberal, and I have almost gotten so I hate the term conservative.” “If we can say we are for progress and for responsibility in the same breath, then I think we are going ahead,” he said.
