The Augusta Courier

EISENHOWER'S CABINET

Eisenhower took a passel of millionaires and a plumber and made his cabinet.

These millionaires are running true to form. It looks like the President may get two or three good ones out of the bunch.

The others don't sound so hot and it is our prediction that the President will start running some of them off soon.

The rumor in Washington has it that the big mogul of General Motors, who is now Secretary of Defense, will be the first to go. They say that he is not such a big mogul in the Defense Department and that he is already bogged down with indecision and fumbling.

It certainly goes to illustrate the fact that when a man has spent a lifetime climbing up the ladder of routine in some big corporation he cannot easily adapt to some other business, profession or calling.

Throughout all history most of the big-shot business people have made the poorest public officials. They have so proved in the capacity of governors, congressmen and other political offices.

It is just like taking a doctor who has spent his lifetime practicing medicine and trying to make a lawyer or the head of General Motors out of him.

It simply can't be done.

These former heads of big corporations usually preside over a working machine and spend most of their time examining statistics, cold facts and figures. They are usually so secluded and lack the ability to deal with human beings. Consequently, they are usually unfitted to deal with a political office where one must deal with a lot of individuals and groups and try to reconcile conflicting interest and points of view.

Most of these big-shots are really stupid when it comes to political office and political matters. Sometimes they are not much better in their own business and we have often wondered how some of these supposed-to-be big-shots ever came to head some of our big business groups.

A lot we have known would make a failure handling a little bitty business by themselves.

Unless the former ruling elder of the Mormon church, who is now Secretary of Agriculture, has some good luck he is bound to go. Farm prices are falling everyday.

Unless wages and the prices of other things come down on the same level with farm prices or farm prices are restored on a level with wages and prices of things the farmers must buy, then the Secretary of Agriculture is in for trouble.

It seems to us that he is utterly lacking in a comprehensive viewpoint of the problems of agriculture in America. His philosophy might have fit fifty years ago, but not today.

The Secretary of State, Mr. Dulles seems to be following in the footsteps of his old teacher, Mr. Acheson. He seems to have adopted the Truman policies hook, line and sinker.

Under his leadership we are getting nowhere fast. Under his leadership we are running around the same circle we ran around under Acheson. Figuratively speaking, the dog is still chasing his tail.

We are still fighting a war which we can't quit and which we have no desire to win.

Yet, we are sacrificing American lives and American resources.

Mr. Dulles, as Mr. Acheson, is letting the Russians make a monkey out of him.

Watch these three. They must either show something fast or the Republicans will ditch them or else the people will ditch the Republicans.

While you are watching them, don't forget the fuddy-duddy who heads the Department of Commerce. You will recall that he fired the head of the Bureau of Standards because he wouldn't put the stamp of approval on some little chemical powder some friend wanted to dump in batteries and claim it would prolong the life of batteries almost indefinitely.

This display of Secretary Weeks' ability is about what you can expect of big shot millionaires as a rule in public office.

And now having said this about the fuddy-duddies, we would like to end by saying that we believe the President has picked an excellent man in his Secretary of Treasury.

Not all of them are fuddy-duddies.

But Ike had better get him some men with vision and the ability to deal with people or we Democrats will soon be back in office. If we do get back we may give the country a bunch of radicals who are too smart to take the place of his fuddy-fuddies.