Presidential Papers, Doc#322 Memorandum To Arthur Frank Burns, 15 July 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Document #322; July 15, 1953
To Arthur Frank Burns
Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series ; Category: Memorandum
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 5: "So much to do in the world"

 

I am constantly being hounded to announce that forever and ever I will favor support prices for the so-called non-perishable products at 90% parity.2 The latest argument, brought to me by Congressman Anderson3 of Minnesota, was as follows:

The record shows that the national income of the United States is measured in terms of seven times the combined income from agriculture, fisheries, forests and mines. In other words, the argument is that the processing to consumers of our raw materials results in an activity and turn-over that finally is measured in the terms just expressed. Based on this allegation (which I understand is a thesis of a so-called expert named Wilkins)4 the contention is that this raw material production--specifically agriculture--must be supported at high prices if we are to have a prosperous economy and full employment.

Please take a look at this matter and talk to me about it sometime.5

1 Austrian-born Professor Burns was serving as economic adviser to the President. A professor of economics at Columbia since 1941, Burns would become a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers this month. In August he would be named its chairman (on the Council see no. 230).

2 The President had gone on record as favoring a free-market farm economy under a more flexible formula for parity. The original parity price for nonperishable products (i.e., wheat, corn, cotton, tobacco, peanuts, and rice) had been based on the 1910-14 ratio between prices and costs, a formula that was no longer considered realistic in light of the productivity advances and numerous other economic changes that had taken place in the farm sector. For background on agricultural price supports see no. 130; see also Eisenhower, Mandate for Change, pp. 287-90.

3 On this same day H. Carl Andersen, Republican of Minnesota, had been among Eisenhower's guests at an early morning White House breakfast.

4 We have been unable to identify Wilkins.

5 There is no reply in EM; Burns would, however, see Eisenhower on July 27 at their regularly scheduled weekly meeting.

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Memorandum To Arthur Frank Burns, 15 July 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 322. 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/322.cfm

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