<--PREV Doc #289  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #291 Document #290; June 30, 1953 To Ezra Taft Benson Series: EM, WHCF, Official File 1 The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part II: Settling into "the long pull"; May 1953 to August 1953 Chapter 4: Striving for Unity   Dear Mr. Secretary: Replying to your letter of the twenty-sixth, it is not necessary to repeat that I am strongly in favor of adequate research in agriculture.1 While I am not in a position to approve the exact increase of thirty-five million dollars that you suggest, I am, of course, necessarily guided in such subjects by your own study and resulting conclusions.2 Therefore I will send your letter on to the Bureau of the Budget, with an expression of my very deep interest and a request that Mr. Dodge give the matter his personal attention when it comes up for examination in his Bureau.3 Sincerely 1 Benson had requested an increase in Department of Agriculture funding for research and education (see Benson to Eisenhower, June 26, 1953, same file as document). Citing the statutory obligation posed by the Agricultural Research and Marketing Act of 1946, Benson lamented the Truman Administration's failure to increase the research budget. The act was an amended version of the Bankhead-Jones Act of 1935, which had provided for "research into basic laws and principles relating to agriculture and to provide for the future development of cooperative agricultural extension work and the more complete endowment and support of land-grant colleges" (U.S., Statutes at Large, vol. 60, pt. 1, p. 1082). During the 1952 presidential campaign Eisenhower had said, "I favor . . . federal contractual arrangements with schools and colleges for scientific research in the public interest" (see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 968). In April 1953 he had written his brother Milton asking what benefits accrued from federal involvement in land-grant colleges besides "in training officers for military purposes" (see no. 141). 2 Benson's "conclusions" would consistently favor increased funding of agricultural research, even in times of budget cutting. Benson saw research and "vigorous marketing" as the means to avoid controls and sustain free markets (Benson, Cross Fire, p. 600). In Eisenhower's messages to Congress in January 1956 and again in January 1959 he would endorse "sharply increased [agricultural] research"; in a November 1959 national release he would approve "an aggressive program of [agricultural] research" (see also ibid., pp. 289-90, 432, 491). 3 After the budget process moved forward, Eisenhower would notify Benson that his overall budget would not be increased (see Eisenhower to Benson, Aug. 7, 1953, same file as document). Attached to the letter was a memo from Budget Director Dodge suggesting that Benson shift funds within the Agriculture Department budget to achieve his research goals (see Dodge to Eisenhower, Aug. 5, 1953, ibid.). In his response Benson indicated that he would increase the research budget, but by less than $35 million (see Benson to Eisenhower, Aug. 21, 1953, ibid.). Two years later, however, Benson would be more successful. The 1955 budget would include an $18 million increase in agricultural research (see U.S., Bureau of the Budget, The Budget of the United States Government for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 1955 [Washington, D.C., 1954], p. 1161), and by 1960 the research budget would exceed $120 million (see U.S., Bureau of the Budget, The Budget of the United States Government for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 1960 [Washington, D.C., 1959], p. 994). For Benson's optimistic evaluation of the results of research see Cross Fire, pp. 468-70. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Ezra Taft Benson, 30 June 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 290. 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/290.cfm <--PREV Doc #289  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #291

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