<--PREV Doc #234  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #236 Document #235; June 8, 1953 To Leonard Wood Hall Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series ; Category: Memorandum 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 1: Developing a spirit of teamwork   Enclosed is a memorandum from Congressman Bender of Ohio.2 When he brought it to my office he talked to me at some length about his problem of patronage "on the small scale." He described it as the kind that means something to the citizen in the local communities. I urged him strongly to see and talk to you.3 Another subject discussed in his memorandum is the wisdom of appointing more individuals from the so-called minority groups, and giving wide publicity to those appointments.4 Please return this memo to me after you have read it.5 1 Hall, of Oyster Bay, New York (LL.B. Georgetown 1920), was the newly elected Chairman of the Republican National Committee. He had been a member of the House of Representatives since 1939 and had served for a number of years on the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee (see New York Times, Apr. 11, 1953). 2 Ohio Republican Congressman George Harrison Bender had been a member of the seventy-sixth through the eightieth Congresses (1939-49) and the eighty-second and eighty-third Congresses (1951-53). Bender had met with the President the morning of June 5 to discuss liaison between the White House and the Congress and political strategy for the upcoming congressional elections. 3 In his memo of the same date (WHCF/OF 99) Bender had written that "politically speaking, 1954 is the day after tomorrow." As Republican chairman since 1936 of populous Cuyahoga County, Ohio, he pointed out that Republicans who had worked hard for an Eisenhower victory reported daily that "contacts with government offices never get past the same folks who made the decisions under twenty years of Democratic Administration." For Eisenhower's concerns about patronage see his memoir, Mandate for Change, pp. 116-20; for developments see no. 530. 4 Bender argued that Eisenhower's election provided an "important opportunity . . . for the Republican Party to reclaim lost voting groups." He urged that appointments of qualified people from "minority groups" be accompanied by appropriate "publicity where publicity counts--among the people directly concerned." Citing the voting strength of Negro voters as an important factor, Bender suggested that "one top-notch appointment publicized nationally would break the Democratic claim to their majority support." On this issue see E. Frederic Morrow, Black Man in the White House (New York, 1963). "By the same token," Bender continued, "Jewish voters are largely unaware of any recognition of their potential contribution." The Jewish community, he said, was eager to participate under Eisenhower's Administration but felt that they had been ignored. A third group, Bender said, were people from central and southern Europe who had been won over to the Democratic Party by "judicious and constantly publicized appointments." He suggested that Republican recognition of Poles, Hungarians, Italians, Czechoslovakians, and Germans would be "well received and . . . have a tangible result upon the coming Congressional elections." 5 In his reply to Eisenhower, Hall agreed that with regard to patronage, "change wasn't occurring fast enough." He also concurred "100%" with Bender on the "need for wider recognition of minority groups" (June 20, 1953, WHCF/OF 99). Hall himself had earlier come under scrutiny from some members of the Republican National Committee (RNC) who were dissatisfied with the low number of appointments given to Republicans thus far. Before Hall was given full endorsement as nominee for National Chairman, he had to give assurances that he would include RNC committee members in considerations of patronage appointments (New York Times, Apr. 11, 1953). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Memorandum To Leonard Wood Hall, 8 June 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. A.D. Chandler and L. Galambos, doc. 235. 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/235.cfm <--PREV Doc #234  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #236

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