THE PRESIDENCY: Return to the Job

His sniffles not quite defeated even after eight days at the La Quinta, Calif, desert home of his friend George Allen, the President of the U.S. clearly hated to leave. Invited back to California by Democratic Governor Edmund G. ("Pat") Brown, Dwight Eisenhower thought of the duties that face him for the rest of his term of office, said almost wistfully: "Maybe I will, after 15 months." But Ike had to get back to Washington. There was plenty for him to do.

Some of his chores were decidedly unpleasant. In his seven years of office, he had been forced only five times to call upon the Taft-Hartley law's injunctive machinery against strikes threatening the national interest. To him, the necessity of using Taft-Hartley could only result from the failure of collective-bargaining procedures, in which he deeply believes. Yet last week he had to invoke Taft-Hartley twice, once in the Eastern dock strike, again—and with more disappointment—in the marathon steel strike.

Also awaiting the President upon his return to Washington was a pile of reports from U.S. officials who had had a chance to study closely Nikita Khrushchev's U.S. visit. The reports were surprisingly optimistic about Khrushchev's intentions—but it remained for the President to evaluate the facts that lay behind the optimism, and on his judgment could depend the course of international relationships for years to come.

There was another problem that might have even more bearing on international relationships: to anyone willing to accept obvious facts, the U.S.S.R. has far outstripped the U.S. in the reach for space. President Eisenhower has seemed remarkably unconcerned about the U.S. lag, but the fact remains that, as a man who has spent his entire career in meeting heavy responsibilities, it is his plain and pressing responsibility to see to it that the U.S. gets humping in its space programs.

But there were also some pleasant things coming before the President on his return to Washington. Although the U.S. remained discreetly silent about its preferences in the British elections, the President could hardly have been less than delighted at the sweeping victory of his old friend Harold Macmillan (see FOREIGN NEWS). And perhaps the most satisfying event of the week was a visit from another friend of the U.S., Mexico's President López Mateos (see HEMISPHERE). Last year, after returning from his tempestuous visit to Latin America, Vice President Nixon recommended that the U.S. distinguish more clearly among the breeds of neighboring national leaders, offer only a cool handshake to dictators but warmly embrace democratically chosen chiefs of state. When López Mateos arrived at Washington's National Airport, the President was there and, symbolic of the increasingly friendly relationship between the U.S. and its next-door southern neighbor, saluted him not only with an abrazo but a warm handshake.