SPUR GIVEN CONGRESS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27374, 12 June 1954, Page 7

SPUR GIVEN CONGRESS

Appeal To Public Opinion

(Rec. 11 p.m.) WASHINGTON, June 11 President Eisenhower went over the heads of a bickering Congress last night to enlist public support for speedier action on his legislative programme for peace and prosperity in the United States and abroad.

He was obviously prodding his Republican Party in Congress to unite behind his proposals and produce a legislative record on which they could campaign in the coming November Congressional elections, a Reuter correspondent said.

Using the advantages of nation-wide radio and television broadcasts of his speech, Mr Eisenhower took full cognisance of the prospects that with only a few months to go before Congress adjourned at the end of July, only about half of his domestic and foreign proposals would be approved at the present rate of progress. Fropi time to time, veteran politicians and a number of newspapers which supported him in the 1952 Presidential campaign have been warning him that his legislative programme was faltering, and that he would have to act personally, using the prestige and power of his high popularity with the people, to save it. This was what Mr Eisenhower did last night, and there were indications that he would intensify his pressures both in private with Congressional leaders and in public to combat any delaying tactics, the correspondent said.

“Less Fission, More Fusion” His call for less political fission and more political fusion in Congress was interpreted as a pointed criticism of the split over policies within the Republican Party, as well as an appeal for more bipartisan co-operation between the Republicans and the Democrats to ensure the success of his programme.

Mr Eisenhower was* aware that in the foreign policy field, much of the opposition to his proposals to promote world trade and help build the economic and military strength of friendly nations overseas had come frorrKhe conservative wing of his own party. The opposition Democrats had generally supported his foreign policy moves, particularly as they closely followed the lines laid down by previous Democratic administrations.

It was the Republican conservatives who had generated so much opposition to the proposed three-year extension of the tariff-cutting Reciprocal Trade Act, and a proposed 15 per cent, reduction in tariffs, on selected imports, that Mr Eisenhower was forced to modify his proposals to a simple oneyear extension of the trade law in this session.

These same conservatives were now ready to lead a fight for drastic cuts in the pendinr 3,500,000,000 dollars economic and military aid programme for overseas allies, which the President has described as essential to freeworld security.

If Mr Eisenhower by his public find private pressures could stimulate more favourable Congressional action on his legislative blueprints for peace and prosperity, the effect would have a direct bearing on the future of the Republican Party, which is now threatened with the loss of control of Congress in the November elections, the corresponded; said.