Extremists Need Not Apply

Correspondent George H. Hall of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch shot a question at the President: "Could you identify the group of persons in the White House or the Administration who give final clearance to nominations . . . before you send them to the Senate?"

Dwight Eisenhower did not miss the innuendo. He stiffened, his eyes sparked and, in a voice that needed no electronic amplification, he barked his answer: I do. Before he appoints anybody to an important post, he said, he calls him in and asks about his philosophy, whether he is biased or distinctly in favor of some doctrinal idea. He always tries to get a man logically devoted to the service, who generally conforms to what the President calls the middle-of-the-road philosophy. He doesn't like extremists, Eisenhower added--particularly those who make up their minds before they know the facts.

At his press conference the President also announced that he is going to do something about the problems of overlapping functions between federal, state, municipal governments. Soon, he will recommend a presidential commission to study the problem and try to stake out the proper areas for each authority.

Ike gave Chip Bohlen his unqualified support (see below). He again gently reproved the authors of the Bricker treaty limiting amendment to the Constitution: while he is sure the Senators are patriotically well-intentioned, the President said, the amendment would certainly restrict the President's flexibility in the conduct of foreign relations. The Korean ammunition supply, he said, is equal to the existing military situation there. And he gave the Truman Administration one of his rare slaps, deplored the $709,000 terminal leave collected by the Fair Deal's top brass; he would never allow his own officials, he said, to accumulate such an obligation against the Government.

Last week the President also: P:Nominated Minnesota's Lieutenant Governor Ancher Nelsen, 48, to be Rural Electrification Administrator, replacing Claude Wickard who resigned by request. A rawboned, farm-bred son of Danish immigrants, Nelsen is a longtime partisan of the farmer.

P:Got a surprise visit from the First Lady, making her first sortie into the business wing of the White House. Mamie came down to find the sources of Ike's recurrent colds, promptly noted the drafty French doors in the Cabinet Room. P:Met with top congressional leaders to plan drastic cuts in next year's ($7.6 billion) foreign aid program.

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