THE ADMINISTRATION: In Search of Policies

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President Eisenhower's program of creating study commissions has already been denounced by Democrats as "Government by postponement," but the real value of the commission approach will depend upon the wisdom and dispatch the commissions show in carrying out their job. Last week the four principal commissions set up so far were just getting started on studies of key Government problems. The four:

Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. Chairman: Clarence E. Manion, 57, ex-dean of Notre Dame University's law school. The 25 members include five Senators, five Representatives, four state governors. At the White House last week, President Eisenhower witnessed the commission's swearing-in. Its assignment, according to the President: to look for methods of eliminating "frictions, duplications and waste from federal-state relations." No. i problem: conflict and overlapping in federal and state taxation.

Commission on Foreign Economic Policy. Chairman: Clarence B. Randall, 62, board chairman of Chicago's Inland Steel Co. Its task, as stated by Eisenhower: "To find acceptable ways and means of widening and deepening the channels of economic intercourse between ourselves and our partners in the free world." The 17 members include, however, some of Congress' most hard-bitten protectionists, men who have shown great interest in narrowing trade channels.

Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government. Chairman: ex-President Herbert Hoover, 77. Sworn in last week, the twelve-member commission is charged, by act of the 83rd Congress, with studying "the present organization and methods of operation of [the executive branch] to determine what changes would contribute to economy, efficiency and improved service in the transaction of the public business."

Advisory Committee on Housing Policies and Programs. Chairman: Albert M. Cole, 52, head of the Housing and Home Finance Agency. The Eisenhower executive order setting up the 22-member group directed it to make "studies and surveys" of federal housing.

Last week President Eisenhower reestablished the 13-member International Development Advisory Board, originally set up in 1950. Chairman (appointed by Truman, reappointed by Eisenhower): Eric A. Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association of America. Mission: to advise Foreign Operations Administrator Harold Stassen on technical assistance (Point Four) programs and policies.