The First Month

At precisely 10:30 a.m. one day last week, looking neither to the right nor left, Dwight Eisenhower strode into the ornate, marble-paneled Indian Treaty Room of the old State Department building for his first news conference as President of the U.S. For two minutes he stood before the microphones while the photographers fired away; then he turned his attention to the reporters who had jammed into the room. Old campaign correspondents could see that Ike Eisenhower was nervous and apprehensive, but when he began to speak he was clearly in command of himself and the situation.

First of all. the President had some statements to make about the subjects he had picked as of most interest: farm prices, secret agreements, the atomic bomb (he is convinced that Russia has it), economic controls and taxes. Then he opened the conference for questions on those subjects first, on other things if time allowed. Exactly 33 minutes after he walked into the room he gave the reporters a quick grin, waved goodbye and walked out. thus ignoring the Roosevelt-Truman custom by which the senior White House correspondent, U.P.'s sleek-haired Merriman Smith, ends press conferences with a "Thank you, Mr. President."

Across the U.S., the stories of what President Eisenhower had to say rolled' on to the front pages. There were both cheers and denunciations for this new kind of press conference run by the President and not by the reporters (see PRESS). But the more remarkable factor was that, although Dwight Eisenhower talked in terms of new values and concepts of government, his meanings were readily understood. Chief reason: he had brought the U.S. a long way during his first month in office--sometimes by specific changes in procedure and policy, sometimes by less tangible changes in attitude and approach.

No administration can make its record in its first 30 days, but Dwight Eisenhower's had made an auspicious start:

Economics. In his first 30 days as President, Eisenhower basically changed U.S. economic policy. The best description of what is going on came last week from the President himself. Said he: the President is trying to unshackle the economy of the U.S.

In the unshackling, wages have been set free and prices are being set free. By last week only 17% of the items on the cost-of-living index were still under control. The tangled mass of red tape which has hobbled civilian industry in procurement of basic materials was being wadded up and thrown in the wastebasket. The Administration, said Dwight Eisenhower, will step back in with controls only if that becomes vitally necessary. Natural economic laws will be given, in the words of Defense Secretary Charles Erwin Wilson, "the darndest whirl" in 20 years.

Agriculture. In the face of a farm-prices decline begun two years ago, Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson has been traveling across the land explaining the Administration's ultimate aim when the present price-support law expires in 1954: flexible price supports which allow freer operation of the forces of the market place, while still giving adequate protection to the farmer. Last week the President recalled a sentence in the Republican platform to indicate what that policy would be like; "A prosperous agriculture with free and independent farmers is fundamental to the national interest."

Taxes. For any fellow Republicans who thought the election was the signal for a tax-cutting field day, Ike laid down a clear, firm edict: budget cuts come before tax cuts.

Administration. Before inauguration, Ike Eisenhower's staff estimated that Ike could get working policy control over the vast Federal Government with some 250 key appointees. By the end of his first month in office he had installed 125, all functioning, so far, with a notable unity of purpose. The Cabinet had been reestablished as a top policymaking body. Eisenhower neither dominates his Cabinet, like Franklin Roosevelt, nor drifts, like Harry Truman, with its strongest voices; he operates as a chairman of the board. The National Security Council has been reinvigorated as the supreme cold-war strategy board.

On Adlai Stevenson's charge that the new Administration might become the "big deal" because of big-business domination, Eisenhower said at his press conference: the President hasn't time to get into political arguments based on semantics; he does not think he should have to answer the charge that he is not concerned with all of the 158 million Americans.

Labor. Before election last November labor-union leaders refused to think of anything less than outright repeal of the Taft-Hartley law. The captains of industry were generally at the other pole. By last week, Secretary of Labor Martin Durkin had some of the smartest and toughest eggs in labor and industry (e.g., the United Mine Workers' John L. Lewis, the C.I.O.'s Walter Reuther, Big Coal's Harry Moses, Big Steel's Ben Moreell) ready to sit down together to study amendments. The Administration hoped--perhaps too optimistically--to get agreement on labor policy out of the sessions.

Foreign Policy. Initiative is a vital yet subtle quality--and at the end of 30 days the U.S. realized that its leaders had taken the initiative in the global war against Communism:

P:In Asia, Formosa has been de-neutralized, the Chinese Nationalists frankly and openly encouraged. But the Formosa decision was part of a larger plan: a new emphasis on training anti-Communist Asians to defend their own lands, and ultimately disengaging U.S. and European forces to build mobile reserves for what might come next.

P:In Europe, the European Defense Community was stirring itself anew following the seven-nation talking and listening tour by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and Mutual Security Director Harold Stassen. The new activity was healthy, and the prospects, while by no means rosy (see INTERNATIONAL), were better than they had been before Dulles' visit.

P:To the world, the new Administration said (see The Nation) that it will not recognize perverted Soviet interpretations of secret wartime agreements. Never, said the President last week, has the heart of America agreed to the enslavement of any people.

Congressional Relations. Seldom before had a President so specifically recognized the legislative branch's coequal part in the Government. Democrats--and many Republicans--read every early political bobble of the Eisenhower Administration (e.g., the failure to inform members of Congress on appointments) as a sign of civil war between Ike and Congress. But House and Senate G.O.P. leadership patiently tolerated the bobbles, and helped Ike fix his system of liaison. When Congress began warming up to a reorganization bill which the President did not like, Eisenhower--without any public cries of alarm--sent clear word on what he wanted. The G.O.P. leaders, who might have squawked about getting the word so late, quietly shifted positions. Senate Majority Leader Bob Taft, billed as Ike's inevitable antagonist, has to date shown himself to be the Administration's dependable and loyal majority leader. White House-Capitol Hill relations got a new twist when Dwight Eisenhower reached for the phone and called Virginia's Harry Byrd. Thanks, said the President to the Senator, for raising the question about "Engine Charlie" Wilson's General Motors stockholdings; it was good to get that one ironed out right at the start. But there was one important factor in this equation of good will: as yet, Congress hasn't tackled any major legislation involving fundamental issues.

All in all--for better or worse--Ike Eisenhower had boldly taken the wheel and steered the U.S. back toward the promised middle of the road, like a man who knows exactly where he is going, and why.

This does not necessarily mean that the road ahead will be smooth. Thus far, Ike has done so well that he has faced little violent criticism, even from the pundits, whose stock in trade is seasoned consideration of the errors and missteps of the national Administration. But criticism, bald and bitter, is sure to come. The opposition will become solider and sharper. New foreign and domestic developments will create new problems and new challenges. The first month was a lively preliminary; the main event is still to come.

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