<--PREV Doc #699  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #701 Document #700; February 1, 1954 To Herbert Brownell, Jr. Series: EM, AWF, DDE Diaries 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 9: Fending off "the reactionary fringe"   Dear Herb: I do not know whether you have ever heard of Franklin Murphy, the Chancellor of Kansas University. He was originally a doctor by profession, has been very active in promoting the so-called Kansas Plan by which rural areas can be assured of medical care, and is a highly respected and articulate citizen of the state. Attached hereto is a letter he has just written to the Secretary of the Kansas Medical Society, in which he gives expression to his anxiety because that Association has taken the position in favor of the "Bricker Amendment." Not long ago he wrote a somewhat similar letter--that time to each member of the Kansas Delegation in Congress. I am attaching that one also.1 I should like to have these back in my files, but if you think it might be worth while to give some of our friends Murphy's particular slant on this situation, I would have no objection to your circulating these letters to Senators Ferguson, Millikin and Knowland--merely asking the final recipient to return them to my office. If you believe that they would not be interested or particularly informed by this viewpoint, please send the letters back to me.2 With warm personal regard, As ever 1 For details of Murphy's letters to the Medical Society and congressional delegation see no. 696; for background on the amendment see nos. 656 and 684. 2 Brownell would meet later this same day with Republican leaders Knowland, Ferguson, Millikin, and the President to discuss an acceptable compromise to the Bricker amendment--a composite, as it were, of the several proposals submitted since Congress had reconvened in January. On January 20 the Senate, by voice vote, had given S.J. Res. 1 highest priority. Knowland and Ferguson had drafted a compromise amendment which they hoped would satisfy Bricker and the Administration. Senator George, in cooperation with the Secretary of State and Democratic leaders, had introduced his own substitute amendment (see no. 741). In an attempt to keep the Republican party from splitting and to find a solution agreeable to the President, as well as to Senators George and Bricker, the GOP leadership was pressing hard for modifying amendments (Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report 12, Jan. 29, 1954, pp. 124-25; ibid., Feb. 5, 1954, 154-56; Congressional Quarterly Almanac, vol. X, 1954, pp. 255-57; New York Times, Jan. 28, Feb. 2, 1954; Tananbaum, Bricker Amendment Controversy, pp. 146-52). For developments see no. 708. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Herbert Brownell, Jr., 1 February 1954. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 700. 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/700.cfm <--PREV Doc #699  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #701

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