The Debits

No President lays down his burden of responsibility with the record wholly summed up on one side of the ledger. Dwight Eisenhower's accomplishments in eight years of peace and prosperity were a strong defense of freedom abroad and a positive push to free enterprise at home. But there were also debits:

THE FARM PROBLEM. When Harry Truman left office, the cost of price supports and food storage was averaging $1.5 billion a year; when Dwight Eisenhower retired to private life, the cost had soared to a disastrous $9 billion annually. Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson's principle of a free market for agriculture was right, but he was never able to translate it into a workable farm program. Democratic Congresses, unwilling to give Benson what he wanted and unable to produce something better of their own, share the blame that Ike was more than willing to put on them. But not once in his eight presidential years did Eisenhower come fully and forcefully to grips with the most scandalous single drain on the U.S. taxpayers' purse.

THE TAX STRUCTURE. "Our tax system," says Democratic Congressman Wilbur Mills, chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, "has become a house of horrors." The first step in tearing down that house is establishing a climate of public opinion in favor of the wrecking crew. Dedicated in his quest for a balanced budget and a debt reduction, reluctant to rock the fiscal boat, Ike was indifferent to tax reform--and thus never urged it, never recommended to Congress any proposals to remove the inequities in the nation's outdated, piecemeal tax legislation.

THE GOLD CRISIS. As far back as November 1959, Treasury Secretary Robert Anderson had formulated his concern over the nation's balance-of-payments deficit (then, as now, running at $3 billion a year). But the danger was not fully realized until nearly a year later. By that time, the stern action needed to bulwark the gold reserve could have made the recession worse and crippled Dick Nixon's chance for the presidency.

FOREIGN POLICY. Summing up the Eisenhower era, New York Timesman James Reston last week noted that "nothing has been settled, but nothing vital to the free world has been lost." The fact that nothing vital was lost is a good answer to most of Ike's critics, including Reston. Peace without retreat was indeed achieved and maintained by the Eisenhower Administration. But President Eisenhower failed to place his vast personal and political prestige behind a realistic effort to promote throughout the world the rule of law, which remains the best and most neglected chance for establishing the "peace with justice" that was Ike's major goal.

Perhaps most of all, Dwight Eisenhower during his two terms in office failed to recognize the vital importance of day-by-day politics in converting deeply felt governmental principle into reality. "The President," a White House aide once said, "hates and despises cheap political maneuvers." So he did--and so he should have. But Ike often carried his feelings so far as to remain above the political battles that are the fabric of positive governmental action. The Democratic comeback in Congress in 1954 and the Democratic landslide in the 1958 elections were among the results of his neglect of practical politics and working politicians.

Thus, although history may rate Dwight Eisenhower highly for his achievements, it must also take into account his failures--not the least of which was his inability to convert his immense personal popularity into vote-getting appeal for his party and its principles.

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