Decision amid Din

While a stampeding Congress was overrunning President Eisenhower on the farm issue last week, the Democrats suddenly chucked their inhibitions and, for the first time in the campaign, began directing their political fire squarely at Ike. Harry Truman called the range and fired the big salvo in his first give-'em-hell personal denunciation of the man who followed him in the White House. Other Democratic campaigners tried to make an issue out of everything they could lay a thought on--Ike's golfing, his stance at the Geneva Conference, the Soviet economic offensive, the Middle East, interest rates, the state of business, even the resignation of Eisenhower's old friend, General Alfred Gruenther, as commander of NATO.

As the political drumfire rattled through the headlines. Dwight Eisenhower was pondering one of the most critical political decisions of his presidency: Should he sign the farm bill? Or should he veto it? Many politicians--some Republicans and most Democrats--said again and again that a veto might be ruinous to the G.O.P. cause. But a signature would mean accepting a set of laws that Eisenhower has consistently opposed as economically unsound and. in the long run, bad for the farmers and for the U.S.

At week's end, after prolonged conferences with Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft. Benson, the President reached a decision. In Augusta, Ga., miles away from the clamor of Washington, he decided to let principle not politics be his guide. As he headed home for Washington. Dwight Eisenhower made up his mind to veto the farm bill. This week he did it.

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