<--PREV Doc #43  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #45 Document #44; February 21, 1957 To Arthur Krock Series: EM, AWF, Name Series ; Category: Personal The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVIII - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part I: A New Beginning, Old Problems; January 1957 to May 1957 Chapter 1: The Mideast and the Eisenhower Doctrine   Dear Arthur:1 I remember well the incident to which you refer in your column of February nineteenth.2 With respect to government controls, I have pondered the matter long and seriously, and always end up with the decision that a "controlled" economy would mean the end of our present private enterprise system. And I don't believe our system is outmoded.3 With warm regard, Sincerely 1 Eisenhower was responding to a February 19, 1957, note written by New York Times columnist Arthur Krock to White House Press Secretary James C. Hagerty (AWF/N). 2 Krock had enclosed a copy of his February 19 New York Times column, "In the Nation," which discussed inflation. He had written Hagerty that "Even if I were fatuous enough to assume that the President keeps in touch with my pieces, I would still retain enough sense to realize he has more important matters on his mind these days. But the enclosure has a connection with an incident in December, 1947, to which he usually refers when I see him." Krock's article referred to Eisenhower's 1947 proposal to control inflation by persuading the United States Steel Corporation to announce that it was maintaining prices for a year in the hope that this would inspire "labor, farmers, government and the rest of the population" to act in a similar fashion (see Galambos, Chief of Staff, no. 1926). 3 In Eisenhower's draft of this letter--originally a note to Hagerty--the President had written that he had "pondered" the question of government controls "long and seriously, but I always end up with a 'controlled' economy. This means the end of our system. It's hard for me to believe the system is outmoded--at least as yet." For background on Eisenhower's efforts to control inflation during his first Administration see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, nos. 172, 348, 1805, and 2060. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal To Arthur Krock, 21 February 1957. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 44. 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/second-term/documents/44.cfm <--PREV Doc #43  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #45

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