Time to Think

Dwight Eisenhower likes to meet people, exchange views. In the White House, this amiable quality can be a weakness as well as an asset. Last week the President decided that hereafter he would try to reserve each Thursday afternoon to concentrate alone on top policy.

The President's seventh and busiest week in office was a good example of why he needed to set aside one afternoon a week for quiet thought. First & foremost was the news from Russia, which required several extraordinary conferences with top intelligence and diplomatic aides. General Van Fleet came in to give his Chief a half-hour briefing on Korea and receive his fourth Distinguished Service Medal. Anthony Eden paid an informal call on his way in from the airport, later lunched with the President. The Foreign Ministers of Norway and Saudi Arabia conferred lengthily with the President. Even Dictator Trujillo of the Dominican Republic dropped in for a brief chat.

At his press conference, the President's remarks were brisk and pointed. The Russian situation, he confessed, was still too murky for comment. He would be sending to Congress his first reorganization plan and would recommend Cabinet status for Federal Security Administrator Oveta Gulp Hobby. He was pleased with the decontrolled price situation.

In the questioning, Ike was frank and unflustered. He disagreed bluntly with Van Fleet's proposal to extend the draft. If McCarthy and his investigations strayed too far from their proper pastures, he would comment on them; meanwhile, he said, it would be improper to express an opinion. Only once did the President's voice show a slight edge--when he emphatically denied a rumor that there was a rift between Bob Taft and himself.

Last week the President also: P:Appointed 1) able Career Diplomat John M. Allison to be Ambassador to Japan; 2) Arthur F. Burns, a Vienna-born Columbia professor to be his economic adviser; 3) Rear Admiral Lewis L. Strauss, financial adviser to the Rockefellers and former member of the Atomic Energy Commission, to be White House liaison ad viser on atomic energy matters; 4) Douglas MacArthur II, longtime Foreign Service officer, nephew of the general, to be counselor for the State Department.

P:Met with congressional leaders to seek a new way to remodel the Taft-Hartley Act.

--Named General George Marshall, General Omar Bradley, Governor Earl Warren and Mrs. Gardner Cowles to represent the U.S. at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth.

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