<--PREV Doc #63  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #65 Document #64; March 2, 1953 To Ralph Cooper Hutchison Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series ; Category: Personal and confidential The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part I: Charting a New Course; January 1953 to April 1953 Chapter 2: "A number of misunderstandings": Party and International Struggles   Dear Ralph:1 Thank you for your letter and the suggestions it contains.2 I will be very watchful about these "pressure" groups. At the same time I believe that it would be very advantageous to have the present FSA organized as a Department.3 For this there are a number of reasons, although I must say I wouldn't place the matter in the classification of vital and urgent. In writing to you the other day, I did not mean to give the impression that I had written any letter endorsing a particular candidate for Paul Hoffman's old office;4 I merely meant that I had promised another person to support him and had already spoken verbally to two or three people who I thought might be influential in making the new selection.5 Having pledged my good faith in the matter, it seemed to me to be out of order to go ahead with a suggestion I myself had made. I still promise you, however, that nothing I shall ever say could be considered even by the wildest stretch of the imagination as damaging to one Dr. Ralph Hutchison. If I am asked anything about the matter I will reply in conformity with that idea. Thanks a lot for your offer of help--one of these days I could easily need it. With personal regard, Sincerely 1 President of Lafayette College since 1945, Hutchison had conferred an honorary degree on Eisenhower after World War II and maintained a friendship with the General (Galambos, Chief of Staff, nos. 722, 1179). In 1949 Eisenhower had recommended him as a civilian member of the U.S. Air Force Academy planning board (Galambos, Columbia University, no. 322). He had visited Eisenhower the morning of February 26. 2 Hutchison had written February 28 (AWF/A) "to add a word or two on two matters which we discussed." He warned the President that sentiment for an education department was dangerous "because we are all so whole-souled for `education.' . . . I think you can resist pressure for new departments of either Health or Education or new emphasis thereon," he wrote, "simply because the establishment of anything other than what now exists will imply increased organization and costs in two fields which should be left almost entirely to the respective states. A staunch defense of state rights and state responsibilities is certainly your out in both of these fields." 3 Hutchison referred to plans to reconstitute the Federal Security Administration--consisting of thirty-eight thousand employees principally in the Social Security Administration, the Public Health Service, the Office of Education, and the Food and Drug Administration--and to elevate it to Cabinet rank. Truman's own attempts to make health, education, and welfare a Cabinet-level department had suffered defeat in 1949 and 1950. In mid-February Eisenhower had pledged to renew those efforts, and this same morning he spoke again on this subject with House Speaker Martin and Senate Majority Leader Taft. On March 5 he announced that he would propose the change to Congress under terms of the recent reorganization act (see no. 26) rather than in separate legislation. The House on March 18 approved a joint resolution endorsing the plan by a margin of 291 to 85, and in a voice vote the Senate passed the measure twelve days later (New York Times, Feb. 17, Mar. 3, 6, 13, 19, 31, Apr. 12, 1953). 4 We could not locate this letter in EM. 5 See no. 61 for Hoffman's resignation from the presidency of the Ford Foundation. H. Rowan Gaither, a San Francisco attorney who had served as acting president of the foundation since February 5, became a trustee on the twenty-eighth of the month and was named president on March 1 (New York Times, Feb. 6, Mar. 1, 2, 1953). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and confidential To Ralph Cooper Hutchison, 2 March 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 64. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/64.cfm <--PREV Doc #63  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #65

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