Presidential Papers, Doc#3 Memorandum To Sherman Adams, 21 January 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower

Document #3; January 21, 1953
To Sherman Adams
Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series, Summerfield Corr. ; 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

 

When Arthur Summerfield was asked to accept the position of Postmaster General, he was informed that no one could have a federal appointment and remain on the Republican National Committee.2

We have decided on naming Alma Schneider as Director of the Denver branch of the Mint.3 However, it runs in my mind that she is a National Committeewoman; the same principle will apply in her case. Please make certain before I sign her nomination to go to the Senate that she has resigned as National Committeewoman. It may be possible she would prefer to remain as Committeewoman rather than accept the post we offer, but that is her choice. Incidentally, it is the same choice that I offered to Arthur Summerfield.

I don't know exactly how these things are arranged, but if there is any delay it is quite possible we may want to send up Ivy Priest's nomination separately.4 Also--I wish you would check up to make certain that Mrs. Priest resigned from the National Committee. It is my understanding that she did so, because I remember there was some question as to who would be named in her place.

1 One of Eisenhower's earliest political supporters and a key campaign staff member, Sherman Adams served as New Hampshire governor from 1949 until Eisenhower assumed the presidency. The President-elect had named him White House Assistant to the President (or chief of staff) on November 24, 1952 (Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, nos. 714, 922, and 995).

2 See ibid., no. 998; and Eisenhower, Mandate for Change, pp. 91-92. Eisenhower had discussed this subject with Colorado Governor Daniel Thornton on January 21 (see Eisenhower to Thornton, Jan. 28, 1953, WHCF/PPF 320).

3 Alma Kittredge Schneider, a Denver businesswoman who had entered Republican state politics in the early 1930s, had served on the party's national committee since 1948. Word of her nomination had become public in mid-January; the Senate would confirm her appointment on January 27. For developments see no. 407.

4 The Senate would confirm Ivy Maude Baker Priest as Treasurer of the United States the same day it voted on Schneider's nomination (ibid.). A Utah Republican National Committeewoman since 1944, Priest had headed the women's division of the Eisenhower campaign (see her autobiography, Green Grows the Ivy [New York, 1958], pp. 186-87, 194-98).

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Memorandum To Sherman Adams, 21 January 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 3. 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/3.cfm

 


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