Ike's First

Reporters began to line up a full hour and a half before the start of President Eisenhower's first press conference last week (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS). In all, 294 newsmen were on hand, including Tass Correspondent Mikhail Fedorov. The crowd was so big that only newsmen with White House press cards were admitted, thus closing the conference to editors, publishers and other visiting firemen who may have hoped to get in.

When the President arrived, he was accompanied only by Press Aides Jim Hagerty and Murray Snyder, in place of the large Government staff who regularly attended Truman's press conferences. He took his place behind the desk in the front of the room and briefly posed for the photographers; then he clasped his hands behind his back and began talking.

On Stage. His first subject was one that has been bothering Washington newsmen: his own relations with the press. Newsmen had begun to worry that they would be kept at arm's length by the Administration after Eisenhower warned against any "leaks" from his official family, and otherwise let the impression grow that the press would have to depend on official announcements.

One of the topics that have been made interesting subjects of speculation for the past few months, said the President, was the thought that he had developed a good deal of antagonism toward the press. He didn't know why people felt he had any hostility toward newsmen. He had been dealing with the press for years, and had found nothing but a desire to dig at the truth, and the press had been open and forthright about it. This is the kind of relationship, the President said, that he and the press are going to continue. Then for 16 minutes Ike delivered some crisp statements, covering five main subjects, announced that there would be some time for questions on the subjects he was discussing when he finished, but that he had to leave to keep an 11 a.m. appointment. In the 15 minutes they got, reporters managed to squeeze in 18 questions, got as many as five front-page stories from the conference.

Filibuster or Firmness. Newsmen's feelings were divided about Ike's first conference. The New York Daily News headlined its editorial: REAL NICE, IKE. Others disagreed. Snapped one wire-service correspondent: "He filibustered for 20 minutes and gave us ten." The Minneapolis Tribune editorialized that he was "pretty sharp at answering the questions he tossed to himself." Said the Knight papers' Ed Lahey: He was "more like the five-star general advising his staff what was going to happen at 1600 hours, and not so much like the Abilene man who tried painfully hard to be a high-minded yokel for his countrymen." But other papers, like the Los Angeles Times, thought Ike's firmness was just what was needed. Said the Times: At the conference he "invited the inference that policy in this Administration is not evoked by the questions of Washington correspondents." Newshen May Craig of the Portland Press-Herald and other Maine papers, who prefers to operate at a press conference like a prosecuting attorney, was disappointed. "He gave us his little lecture," said she, "then he dismissed us."

In a Closet. The President's soothing talk at his conference seemed to signal a change in other parts of the Administration. Reporters, who had already begun to grumble that Eisenhower's "no-leak" rule was drying up all news sources, found the new Administration more talkative. Ike and his staffers were already learning that even when there were no White House or Cabinet leaks, it was impossible to keep stories from the press. Newsmen could (and did) go to Congressmen, who had to be kept informed of major decisions by the White House. No one learned faster than Press Secretary Hagerty how hard it is to keep secrets in Washington. Said Hagerty last week: "Since I've been in Washington, I've found that the only way you can talk off the record is to go into a closet and talk to yourself, and even then it may leak."

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