<--PREV Doc #552  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #554 Document #553; January 27, 1958 To Sherman Adams Series: EM, AWF, DDE Diaries Series ; Category: Memorandum The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVIII - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part III: The Space Age Begins; October 1957 to January 1958 Chapter 7: NATO and the Cold War   Senator Thye has addressed to me a personal communication about the dairy situation in Minnesota.1 In order to assure that I personally received the message, he transmitted the letter directly to the Usher.2 You will note his final paragraph requests a conference with me. I assume that you had better set this up, but please be sure some staff officer is included in the appointment who is knowledgeable in this field. Attached to this letter is one Ezra Benson independently submitted. I think you will want to read both.3 As quickly as you will let Mrs. Whitman know of a convenient time for Senator Thye to visit me, she will draft a note asking him--or alternatively you can telephone his office.4 1 Republican Senator Edward John Thye of Minnesota had long protested Administration efforts to lower price supports for dairy products (for background see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, no. 787). His concern stemmed from Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson's December 1957 announcement that federal price supports on dairy products were to be cut as deeply as the law allowed, effective April 1, 1958. The move had aroused bitter opposition across party lines in Congress, prompting demands that Eisenhower fire Benson (New York Times, Dec. 19, 1957). 2 J. Bernard West was the White House Chief Usher. 3 Benson's letter is not in AWF. 4 Eisenhower would meet with Senator Thye, Sherman Adams, and White House aide Jack Z. Anderson for sixteen minutes on January 31. Anderson, who had served as special assistant to the Secretary of Agriculture from 1955 - 1956, and Governor Adams had briefed Eisenhower on the milk support price issue in preparation for the meeting with Thye (Anderson to Whitman, Jan. 31, 1958, AWF/D). Rejecting the Administration's position, Thye would tell the President that while milk production was up because of improved feeding methods, farmers were "working their way out" of their overproduction dilemma by reducing their herds. He would say that the announced reduction in the milk support price "would mean a loss of twenty-five cents per hundred weight to farm producers" and would place "the Republicans and the Administration in a defenseless position politically." Eisenhower would reiterate his support for Secretary of Agriculture Benson's position on cutting price supports. Responding to Senator Thye's statement that Congress was likely to pass legislation freezing support prices, the President would say that any such plan by Congress would be "a serious blow to the free enterprise system." As predicted, in March Congress would pass legislation outlawing cuts in farm price supports for 1958. Eisenhower would again defend Benson's position and veto the legislation (see Eisenhower to Thye, Mar. 13, 1958, and other papers in WHCF/OF 1; Congressional Quarterly Almanac, vol. XVI, 1958, pp. 269 - 71, 335; and New York Times, Mar. 22, 1957). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Memorandum To Sherman Adams, 27 January 1958. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 553. 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/553.cfm <--PREV Doc #552  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #554

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