THE ADMINISTRATION: Long Knives for Ezra

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The day before President Eisenhower took off for Europe and Asia, his White House breakfast guest was Republican National Chairman Thruston Morton. Morton reported on the general comeback in Republican popularity and rising hopes for 1960, then got down to what had been on the minds of top-level Republican strategists for weeks. The G.O.P.'s big trouble for 1960, said Morton, is the farm belt. Not only will the Republicans have trouble holding on to the remaining G.O.P. congressional seats and the six contested Midwestern Senate seats, but they might even lose the presidency if the Democrats should play the farm problem right. Said Morton pointedly: the man at the heart of the political farm problem is Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson.

Deep Impression? Morton emphasized to Eisenhower his own personal liking for Benson. Benson's ideas on the farm situation are right, said Morton, but that no longer matters. Whether right or wrong, he went on, Benson is soundly hated by most farmers. Morton stopped short of proposing that Ike fire Benson, but left no doubt of his meaning. Eisenhower said nothing to indicate his feelings, but Morton got word after he left the White House that his talk had made a deeper impression than Eisenhower had let on.

In Chicago last week for the Republican National Committee meeting, Chairman Morton brought up the subject of Benson at press conferences in a way that sounded suspiciously like the sweep of a whetstone over a long knife. Said he after the session: "Several of the members said to me that in the best interest of the party, he should step down. I will talk to Secretary Benson very frankly and tell him what was said." The anti-Benson revolt, he went on, was "all over the breadbasket from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains." He would not personally recommend to Benson that he resign, he said, but he would communicate the feelings of the members of his committee—possibly at this week's Cabinet meeting.

Genuine Popularity? Benson was still convalescing from a gall-bladder operation in Washington's Walter Reed Hospital. But his Agriculture Department aides heatedly denied that he has any thought of resigning. They believe Benson is genuinely popular in farm areas, blame his troubles on what they call "the Vice President Nixon faction"—identified in its top ranks as Interior Secretary Fred Seaton, Attorney General William Rogers, Labor Secretary James Mitchell and Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield (Republican Presidential Hopeful Nelson Rockefeller promptly sprang to Benson's side, said: "I feel we are not going to solve problems by seeking scapegoats").

In the Cabinet, Benson still has the firm support of influential Treasury Secretary Robert Anderson and, his aides insist, Dwight Eisenhower. Benson's best moment of the week: receiving a letter from the President, from somewhere in mid-trip, wishing him a speedy recovery.