<--PREV Doc #672  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #674 Document #673; May 2, 1958 To Arthur Ellsworth Summerfield Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part IV: Recession and Reform; February 1958 to May 1958 Chapter 10: Restructuring for National Security   Dear Arthur: Thank you very much for your letter of the first. With the general thesis of your paper I am in agreement.1 With respect to the program of activity that you outline as one required if we are to change the American psychological attitude from pessimism to optimism, I should like to point out some of the items you suggest have already received considerable treatment. Under item two, for example, I know of several meetings that have already taken place or are now scheduled. I am personally to make a talk to an Economic Mobilization Conference in New York on the night of May 18th, and during the preceding two days both the Secretary of Commerce and the Vice President will do the same.2 With respect to item three, the Federal Reserve Board has, in recent months, acted very decisively. Possibly a little needling of the commercial banks might be effective.3 I think item five would be particularly good.4 In any event, I will have some of the staff look over your memorandum.5 Thank you for taking the trouble to send it to me. With warm regard, As ever 1 Summerfield's letter had addressed the recession by offering "a planned program of improvement" that would not increase the national deficit (May 1, 1958, AWF/A). There was a danger, he believed, that "public psychology will cause actions which will cause the recession to feed upon itself and worsen." A "well-planned" program by the Administration in concert with commerce and industry, could "strengthen the psychological attitude of our citizens." On the recession see, for example, no. 698. 2 Summerfield had suggested holding a conference "of industrialists and commercial magnates to arrange for concrete announcements or explanations by all of these companies of plant equipment, etc." On Eisenhower's speech and the Economic Mobilization Conference see nos. 675 and 691. 3 Summerfield had suggested that "commercial bankers should be called upon to reduce interest rates to borrowers to encourage new projects. The bankers should also announce readiness to make loans on real estate, homes, etc." See nos. 598 and 675. 4 Summerfield's fifth point dealt with GOP unity. "The party should present a solid front in the psychological campaign and should lose no opportunity to disprove any statement made by anyone which would indicate that the recession was deepening. I think it is particularly important," he said, "that Republicans show that the Democrat Congress is trying to sabotage the Administration's efforts to improve business, and that Republicans make this an issue in the forthcoming campaign." For developments see no. 850. 5 Eisenhower would send a memorandum to Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Saulnier regarding Summerfield's letter on this same day (May 2, 1958, AWF/A). On May 5 Saulnier would reply that he was skeptical of "deliberate, planned efforts to bolster confidence." While he "instinctively" relied on the "tendency of Americans to respond quickly to favorable events that come along in the regular course of business," there might, as Summerfield had suggested, be ways "to speed up 'favorable events' and, especially, to bring them more clearly and forcibly to the attention of the public generally." Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Arthur Ellsworth Summerfield, 2 May 1958. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 673. 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/673.cfm <--PREV Doc #672  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #674

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