The Riptide

For his first eight months as President Dwight Eisenhower rode the crest of the great wave that swept him into the White House. In early September, his personal popularity was higher than it had ever been. Then, quite subtly, the inevitable undertow set in. This week it was clear that the Eisenhower Administration was caught in its first popularity riptide.

The strongest statistical evidence came from Pollster George Gallup. Last fortnight Gallup asked: "Do you approve or disapprove of the way Eisenhower is handling his job as President?" The results: 65% approve, 20% disapprove, 15% have no opinion. By any standard, 65% approval is a high rating. But for President Eisenhower, the figure represented a sharp drop of 10 percentage points in just six weeks.*

Down on the Farm. The disapproving 20% were asked another question: "Why do you feel that way?" The doubters complained variously that the President has not cut taxes, or that he has not improved economic conditions, or helped labor or the farmer, or fulfilled his promises, or displayed leadership or accomplished anything. They felt that he has caused unemployment, favored big business, vacationed and golfed too much.

The down trend cut across every major population group, but the largest defection was right where it could be expected: among farmers. Although the prices of dairy products and basic crops, e.g., wheat, are supported by the Federal Government, drought and falling livestock prices have brought a great outcry from the farm belt. Farm income has been generally falling since 1947, but that fact does not cool the farmer's ire in 1953. Shrill cries of protest have arisen, and they are directed at one man: Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson.

Benson continued the price-support programs and adopted emergency measures to help drought-stricken farmers. But to many farm-belt politicians and livestock men, that is not enough, and Benson's clear intimation that he really prefers a freer market is too much. Suddenly, reporters began badgering Benson with that ominous Washington question: "Are you going to resign?" As early as mid-September both Ike and his Secretary of Agriculture were aware of the power of the question to change the tide. In Denver to confer with the President, Benson said: "I did not go to Washington because I wanted the job. The President may have my resignation any time he wants to ask for it." Eisenhower told friends: "The way I feel now, I will never ask for Ezra's resignation."

Principle v. Politics. Armed with that kind of support, Benson refused to stampede. Sipping milk as he talked, he told the convention of the National Retail Farm Equipment Association in Chicago last week that he will go ahead with his long-range efforts to develop a better farm program. Said he: "We are not interested in pleasing or replying to rabble-rousers and demagogues."

But the cries kept on, and many a Republican politician joined in. North Dakota's Senator Milton R. Young, a professional Benson foe, got new headlines by demanding the Secretary's resignation. One of the few members of Congress to come to Benson's defense was Vermont's George Aiken, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, who said Benson was the victim of a "vicious smear campaign."

The Fair Dealing National Farmers Union (whose counsel is former Secretary of Agriculture Charles Brannan) sent a caravan of 350 protesting livestock farmers to Washington from 30 states to rope and tie Benson. Trying to head them off, Benson sent a telegram to Farmers Union President James G. Patton, pointing out that such mass meetings seldom achieve practical results. He urged that a small representative group be sent, commenting that there was no need to expose "working cattlemen to the hardship of the caravan." They came anyway, and this week personally taxed Benson with their demand for Government support of live-cattle prices at 90% of parity. Benson said he had an "open mind," but he was afraid that direct cattle-price supports would not work.

As the anti-Benson campaign roared on, the President stood firmly behind his Secretary of Agriculture. Ezra Benson was going to stay on to formulate his farm program and present it to Congress in January. Dwight Eisenhower had told friends: "I would rather go down to defeat fighting for a principle I know is right than bow to political pressure."

*The decrease set no new pattern for Presidents. Shortly after Harry Truman took office his rating was 87%. Within a year it was down to 43%.

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