Presidential Papers, Doc#1209 Personal To Robert Lily Spragins, 17 December 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Document #1209; December 17, 1954
To Robert Lily Spragins
Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series: TVA ; Category: Personal
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XV - The Presidency: The Middle Way
Part VI: Crises Abroad, Party Problems at Home; September 1954 to December 1954
Chapter 13: "A new phase of political experience"

 

Dear Lil:1 Many thanks for your "report." I am particularly interested in what you say about the Dixon-Yates contract, and I agree that the matter ought, if possible, to be presented to the public as simply as possible. This I have tried time and again to do, both in press conferences and in letters that have been made public.2

It seems to me that all argument for the construction by the Federal Government of the additional steam plants ignores this one and very important truth: If the Federal Government assumes responsibility in perpetuity for providing the TVA area with all the power it can accept, generated by any means whatsoever, it has a similar responsibility with respect to every other area and region and corner of the United States of America. I believe further that if we build new plants at Federal expense--implying a purpose of continuing this process indefinitely in the future, we must have a vast national plan; if we go ahead in that direction, such a program deserves earnest and prayerful study. In the meantime the citizens of the TVA area must not be deprived of the additional power they need for the next several years, and the contract to Dixon-Yates would give them that power at the lowest over-all cost. No one in the Administration has any intention of destroying or damaging TVA or of diminishing its effectiveness in any way.3

This is my basic philosophy in the matter. It is of course an over-simplification.

With warm regard, and best wishes for a happy holiday season, Sincerely

1 For background on Spragins, Eisenhower's longtime army friend, see Galambos, Chief of Staff, no. 1071, and Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 964.

2 Eisenhower had written a letter to the chairman of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, W. Sterling Cole (Rep., N.Y.) that was published in the New York Times (see no. 1132). Similarly, he had explicated his views on Dixon-Yates in several news conferences: see Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1954, pp. 612-13, 1034-38. We have been unable to locate Spragins's "report."

3 For background on this issue see nos. 449, 985, and 1132. For developments see no. 1515.

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal To Robert Lily Spragins, 17 December 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1209. 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/1209.cfm

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