THE PRESIDENCY: Splendid Misery

In his first year as first President, George Washington approved 27 laws, made about no appointments, and his budgetmaking amounted to no more than signing a 13-line document prepared in Congress. Thomas Jefferson, whose chores were not much heavier, called the presidency "splendid misery." Yet today, in a typical year, Dwight Eisenhower may sign 750 bills, send 40,000 promotions and appointments to Congress, and take the responsibility for a budget that fills 1,100 small-print pages. Not only is he expected to lead Western diplomacy, guide the nation's domestic affairs and entertain ceremoniously, but he must perform such assorted functions as approving the U.S. Navy Band's concert tours, dealing with dismissals from the Naval Academy and chatting with boy scouts.

Last week, answering a press-conference question, Ike admitted that he was working on a reorganization program designed to conserve the President's energies for important statecraft. He killed off talk about the establishment of two additional "vice presidencies"; there is a "constitutional, traditional meaning" for the term Vice President, said he, and it could not be applied to any other job. Ike did not elaborate, but the White House is hard at work on a plan that would establish two "assistants to the President" in appointive posts subject to Senate confirmation, ranking at least with Cabinet members. One would specialize in foreign affairs, the other in domestic affairs. In helping the President with day-to-day affairs, they would be more important than the Vice President, who is constitutionally required only to preside over the Senate. Where assistants now shield Ike through persuasion or toughness, the. new assistants—at least in theory—would do it by having authority to take over some of his duties.

Ike will not propose the reorganization in time to do himself any good. Said he: "I'm not going to put it before the Congress until the final session when I'm here, because I am not going to do it with any thought that it is I who will profit."