Snake Charmer

Going to Washington is "like being taken by the scruff of the neck and thrown into a basket of snakes," remarked Detroit Banker Joseph Morrell Dodge two years ago when he prepared to take over as President Eisenhower's Budget Director. Last week Dodge, who has been back in Washington after a brief absence since he left the Budget Bureau, became Ike's chief snake charmer in charge of developing a comprehensive foreign economic policy.

The President named Dodge as chairman of a new Council on Foreign Economic Policy, whose other members will be Secretary of State Dulles, Treasury Secretary Humphrey, Commerce Secretary Weeks, Agriculture Secretary Benson, FOAdministrator Stassen and three top White House aides.

A basketful of problems awaits Joe Dodge. Differences of approach among Dulles, Stassen, Humphrey and others have stalled Eisenhower's none-too-vigorous past efforts to construct a clear-cut U.S. economic policy for the world (TIME, Dec. 13). Dodge would not go back into the Washington snake pit if he was not convinced that this time Ike is determined to get his foreign economic program through Congress--a task that must begin with agreement inside the Administration.

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