Presidential Papers, Doc#1959 To Arthur Frank Burns, 18 August 1956. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Doc #1960

Document #1959; August 18, 1956
To Arthur Frank Burns
Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVII - The Presidency: The Middle Way
Part X: Cracks in the Alliance; May 1956 to September 1956
Chapter 21: "Grave difficulties in the Suez crisis"

 

Dear Arthur: I have never been one to "point with pride to" any accomplishments with which I have been associated, but I assure you that I am full of that commodity as I look over the tables you have put together to indicate the extraordinary improvement in the economic welfare of the American people over the past few years.1 (Incidentally, I think we might in the months to come stress that economic welfare aspect to the fullest).2 At any rate, you give me a provocative and exciting document--and I am grateful to you not only for initiating the project, but for the large part you have played in guiding our economic policies toward the results that you now demonstrate.

You have more than earned a long and enjoyable vacation.3 I shall hope to see you soon after we settle down once again to routine (if such a thing is going to be at all possible in the next two months).

With warm regard, As ever

1 Burns had sent the President (August 17, AWF/A) a statistical history of the "diffusion of economic well-being." Burns said "the past three and a half years have been a period of great and widely shared prosperity." He had analyzed, he said, what had "really happened in the sphere of economic welfare, rather than economic activity." In thirty tables Burns presented data covering a wide range of subjects, from comparisons of gross national product and average gross weekly earnings in selected industries to statistics on vacations, families owning automobiles, and homes with selected electrical appliances (Aug. 16, 1956, AWF/A, Burns Corr.). For background see Sloan, Eisenhower and the Management of Prosperity, pp. 49-52, and Saulnier, Constructive Years, pp. 75-97.

2 Eisenhower had written on Ann Whitman's cover memorandum "We must use these" (AWF/A, Burns Corr.).

3 Burns had said that he was planning on vacationing at his farm. "I hope that you, too, will get some vacation before the campaign gets actively under way."

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Arthur Frank Burns, 18 August 1956. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1959. 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/1959.cfm

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