Presidential Papers, Doc#649 To Aksel Nielsen, 5 January 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Doc #650

Document #649; January 5, 1954
To Aksel Nielsen
Series: EM, AWF, Name Series
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XV - The Presidency: The Middle Way
Part IV: "Pushing ahead along the broad center"; December 1953 to March 1954
Chapter 8: A world "racing toward catastrophe"

 

Dear Aks: It just occurs to me that I have not written to you in 1954 and I very much doubt that I have acknowledged your nice note that I received during the holidays. Mrs. Whitman just tells me that this is perfect proof of my failing memory*--that I did make such acknowledgment.1 But there is nothing to prevent my thanking you again and at least I remember well the message itself.

I thought you might like to know that when Mr. Cole presented his "Housing Program" to the Cabinet not long ago it was well received.2 He several times called upon the authority of his Advisory Commission to substantiate his views or to support recommendations. In several instances I heard someone remark "those fellows ought to know their business, especially Aksel Nielsen."3 Except for the location of your birthplace, I would certainly suggest that we trade jobs because they are often far from complimentary in talking about my conclusions.4 As ever

P.S. Love to your family.

P.S. II I am sending you a reproduction of a "portrait" I painted of Lincoln. The only reason I am bold enough to do it is because my friends have been kind enough to say that it is a fine little momento--but if you shouldn't like it, put it in the ash can.5

* unfair and untrue.

1 In support of Eisenhower's memory, we have not found in EM the document to which Mrs. Whitman referred.

2 Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency Administrator Albert M. Cole had presented these proposals to the Cabinet on December 9. The program, Cole said, was an "integrated" one that attacked the housing problem as a whole. His recommendations--which the President praised as "intelligent" and "well rounded" (AWF/Cabinet)--included an urban renewal program through liberal FHA loans and grants, additional public housing for low income families, and a statutory board to set FHA and Veterans Administration (VA) interest rates at a level which would create a sound mortgage market. For further background on Cole's proposals see no. 486.

3 In September 1953 Eisenhower had appointed Nielsen and twenty others, some representing major housing lobby groups, to an Advisory Commission on Government Housing Policies and Programs headed by Cole (see New York Times, Sept. 13, 1953).

In further correspondence regarding the housing program Milton Eisenhower would write to his brother on January 8, relaying some reservations concerning Cole's report which had been sent to him by Ralph Harlan Cake, a lawyer from Portland, Oregon, long active as a Republican National Committeeman, and a former president of the U.S. Savings and Loan League (on Cake see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 924). Cake said that he agreed in principle with slum prevention but found the public housing proposal a "farce." He claimed that the report amounted to "subterfuge" (AWF/N). On January 11, in a phone conversation with Whitman, Nielsen would observe that he had been expecting "a blow like the letter from Dr. Milton" but that he could find nothing in the report that suggested "subterfuge" (AWF/N, Milton Eisenhower Corr.).

At the end of January, Eisenhower would send his comprehensive housing program to Congress (see nos. 9 and 486). Following long debate, the House and Senate would agree to authorize 35,000 units for one year, stipulating that they could be built only for low-income families losing their homes to slum clearance or other government programs. On August 2, 1954, Eisenhower would sign the Omnibus Housing Act. See Reichard, The Reaffirmation of Republicanism, pp. 120-29; Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report 12, Feb. 26, 1954, pp. 237-41; and Congressional Quarterly Almanac, vol. X, 1954, pp. 198-205.

4 Nielsen had been born in Denmark.

5 On the Lincoln portrait see no. 587.

6 This was Ann Whitman's comment.

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Aksel Nielsen, 5 January 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 649. 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/649.cfm

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