THE PRESIDENCY: A Matter of Presence

The U.S. had critical interests on the line in a dozen swiftly moving areas: in the Middle East, Tunisia, Indonesia (see FOREIGN NEWS), in the drift toward an international summit conference, in the critical Stateside problems of defense and Pentagon reorganization, and especially in the deepening recession. To cope with these problems there were plenty of plans and policies. Conspicuously absent was a badly needed feeling of presence—specifically, the presence of the President of the U.S. at his desk, giving attention to the daily details that make long-range plans and policies work.

Perhaps the problem was more psychological than material—but that did not lessen its seriousness. Last week was a case in point: despite mounting unemployment figures, the Administration was confident of the basic strength of the U.S. economy, and President Eisenhower told why in a special message (see The Economy). His aim was to instill public confidence in the fact that the economy was in strong, sure hands. His Administration, he said, was keeping constant vigilance. Yet the very next day he was off for a ten-day vacation on the Georgia estate of ex-Treasury Secretary George Magoffin Humphrey, last year's prophet of a hair-curling depression—and a good deal of the meaning seemed gone out of his message. Ike in the White House at such a time would have meant presence, and perhaps a national sense of day-to-day problems studied and decided on. Ike by the fireplace on a winterbound Georgia plantation was a remote figure in a demanding and uneasy time.