Down on the Farm

The onetime Kansas farm boy, who is now an absentee Pennsylvania farm owner, took time one day last week from his capital chores for a visit to the U.S. Government's great agricultural research center (11,000 acres, 1,000 buildings, 2,000 hired hands) at Beltsville. Md. Guided by Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Benson, Dwight Eisenhower inspected greenhouses, orchards, poultry pens, prize-winning cows. ("Of all things on the farm," said the President, "I hated milking most.") Fingering a lightweight raincoat made from corn fibers and fats, he wondered, half in jest and half with his mind on staggering federal butter surpluses, if "we could make a raincoat out of butter."

At a big buffet luncheon (orange juice, lemon ice, roast beef, ham, candied sweet potatoes, potato salad, peas, asparagus, mushrooms, lettuce, onions, whole-wheat rolls, fresh strawberry pie), the President protested, "Oh, my belt line!" He had just gone on a diet, he said, but at 182 lbs. he is still 6 lbs. overweight. In a mellow, after-meal mood, the guest of honor told Beltsville's hands that he stood firmly behind the kind of research they were doing. Someone mentioned the President's brother, Dr. Milton Eisenhower, who had once been Agriculture Department information director (1928-40). Chuckling, Ike said: "I must tell you a story. A Congressman came in to see me the other day and was telling me what a fine man Milton was. I said, 'You needn't sell Milton to me. I think he's the greatest man in the United States. If it wasn't for his name, he would be in a high Government position.' Well, the Congressman felt so strongly about it that he wrote me a letter in which he urged me not to let such an inconsequential reason stand in the way of bringing Milton into the Government. Then he added, 'Anyway, Milton was a well-known authority in his field in Washington when you were nothing but a major in the Army.' "

The President also:

P: Gave his support, through G.O.P. congressional leaders, to a proposal to lend 1,000,000 tons of wheat to Pakistan.

P: Bucked to the Justice Department a U.S. Court of Claims order that he produce a long-secret report by the Securities & Exchange Commission on the activities of the Empire Ordnance Corp., a World War II munitions-maker. The report, said to be critical, had been suppressed by Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

P: Announced that the King and Queen of Greece have been invited to visit the U.S. this fall, the first visit of Greek sovereigns since that of the late George II in 1942.

P: Announced two NATO appointments: General Joseph Lawton Collins, retiring Army chief of staff, to be the representative of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on NATO's Military Committee and Standing Group; and New York Textile Man John C. Hughes, 61, a World War I aide of General John J. Pershing and World War II OSS official, to be the U.S. representative, with ambassadorial rank, on the North Atlantic Council.

P: Nominated Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, multimillionaire charitarian and coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, as Under Secretary (at $17,500 a year) to Health, Education, and Welfare Secretary Oveta Culp Hobby.

P: Sent to Congress four reorganization proposals, including 1) a merger of all foreign information services, now carried on by State, MSA, Point Four and occupation authorities, into a new U.S. Information Agency, and 2) the abolition of MSA in favor of a new, broader Foreign Operations Administration. Both will be under the State Department's policy guidance.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.