Ear to the Ground Swell

Slowly recovering from the hacking cough that has punctuated his speeches and conversation since Inauguration Day, President Eisenhower last week was discomforted by further complications. Striding into his 103rd press conference, the President surveyed his audience through eyes moist and red-rimmed from a stubborn head cold. Tamped into his left ear was a medicated wad of cotton. To newsmen about to ply him with such lackluster inquiries as whether he drinks the District of Columbia's fluoridated tap water (he does), Ike explained that his hearing temporarily was not good (Presidential Physician Howard McC. Snyder's diagnosis: an inflamed Eustachian tube). The President advised the press to sound off loud and clear to help his handicapped hearing.

As the questions rolled loudly out, it soon became obvious that the President's hearing had been acute enough all along to catch the misgivings around the nation about the size of his budget. Asked about the steady rise in the cost of living, he seized the occasion to talk about the part played by Government spending. "Now for every purpose that was provided for, in the budget, I still am in favor . . . [but] I do think that we can vary the speed . . ." Then he disclosed that he was making "investigations through the Cabinet and other responsible officers to see whether some of these [projects] can't be slowed up in order to reduce our spending and take that much pressure off this rising curve . . . Long before this budget ever went to Congress I gave orders for the kind of study that is going on now, has been going on, and will continue to go on; that is, to find out whether it does represent the minimum in services and programs that the United States requires."

Away from Washington. Rumbling through Congress already were suggestions that the size of U.S. foreign-aid allotments be sharply cut. Warned the President: "I don't think you can take substantial cuts there and still support the welfare of the United States and the world . . . We asked for $4.4 billion, of which about $2.6 billion is for military assistance . . . to which we are committed . . . and about $1.8 billion for all other. And if you were interested enough to read my inaugural address and the several messages I have addressed to the Congress, you know how greatly I believe the world, the free world, is depending upon some intelligent economic development in these underdeveloped areas."

Could total budget cuts, as House Minority Leader Joe Martin estimated, reach $3 billion? "I wouldn't speculate at this moment on the size . . . I can only tell you exactly how we are approaching it."

At week's end the White House announced tentative plans for Ike to spend this week in a warmer climate for his cold's sake. With Secretary of State Dulles away for the conference of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization Council and Vice President Nixon in Africa (see below), Ike was loth to try the Arizona vacation he had discussed. But White House aides were equally loth to let his cold drag on in Washington's chilly spring. Finally they worked a compromise: Florida, four air hours nearer the White House than Arizona. Because Florida is tight-packed with sun-worshiping tourists, Sun Seeker Eisenhower would use Air Force accommodations (probably at the Palm Beach Air Force Base), from that vantage point fly directly to Bermuda for his conference with Britain's Harold Macmillan.

Last week the President also:

P: Received West German Foreign Minister Heinrich von Brentano, got his assurances that Chancellor Konrad Adenauer will be well enough by May for a U.S. visit.

P: Named his first Negro judge: Scovel Richardson, 45, U.S. Parole Board chairman and onetime Lincoln University Law School dean, who will take a lifetime seat on the New York Customs Court.

P: Asked Congress to approve an amendment to the Anglo-American Financial Agreement of 1945 which would give the United Kingdom the right to postpone the 1956 installment of interest on the $3.7 billion loan, and the right to postpone seven more future installments of principal and interest as necessary.

P: Enjoyed a nostalgic reunion outside the White House with his World War II command car, a 1942 Cadillac that hauled Ike around England before the invasion, around the Continent after it. Used after the war by SHAPE Commander General Alfred M. Gruenther, the Cadillac in 1955 went on loan for Ike's use during the summit conference at Geneva. Finally retired by the Army, it has been bought by anonymous friends, is on its way to the Eisenhower Museum at Abilene, Kans.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.