<--PREV Doc #74  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #76 Document #75; March 12, 1953 To Edgar Newton Eisenhower Series: EM, AWF, Name Series ; Category: Personal and confidential 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 2: "A number of misunderstandings": Party and International Struggles   Dear Ed: Thank you very much for your letter of March ninth.1 I have been somewhat troubled myself by the practice of selecting federal appointees from among elected officials in states. I quite understand your bewilderment and resentment. As for young Eastvold, I did not know that he was being considered for a post of any kind.2 I must say that he made a very fine presentation at the Chicago convention and created for himself a good reputation among numerous people who met him there. They, of course, probably know nothing whatsoever of his general background. In any event, I have put out a word of caution on the matter. This morning there was a young man in my office from the State of Washington named Owen Clarke.3 He will probably be appointed to a post for which we think his experience fits him. He said that once or twice he had been on the opposite side of the fence from you in some particular legal contest in Tacoma. He is a most personable young man. Clarke has been turned up because of my insistence upon looking for some young men to get into some of these appointive positions.4 In one commission that we have here--an important one--I am quite certain that the average age is no less than seventy-two. In fact we have one man who, I believe, they told me was eighty-one. You can see the need for a little bit of young blood. Please give my best to Lucy, and to Janis and her family. As ever 1 The President's brother had advised against making public the names of possible federal appointees before the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had completed background investigations; respondents, said Edgar, were less candid about widely publicized job candidates. Edgar also aired his view "that a man should not be taken from a newly elected office and appointed to another job until he has served at least one-half of the time for which he was elected" (AWF/N). 2 Edgar had mentioned newly elected Washington Attorney General Donald W. Eastvold, who reportedly had been selected to be legal advisor to a member of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The President's brother doubted that Eastvold would pass the FBI security check and argued that he lacked broad experience. 3 Owen Frederick Clarke, a Navy veteran and Yakima, Washington, lawyer, had chaired the state public service commission between 1949 and 1951. During the 1952 campaign he had been active on Eisenhower's behalf. He visited the White House to discuss the post of Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Eisenhower would name him to that post in late May, and the Senate would confirm him on July 8. 4 Clarke was thirty-nine. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and confidential To Edgar Newton Eisenhower, 12 March 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 75. 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/75.cfm <--PREV Doc #74  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #76

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