Man with a Mandate

In the 34 days since Ike's previous news conference, he and the Democratic Congress had marched down the hill for a ballot-box reckoning, surprisingly had marched back up again for two more years together. Yet he was midway through the session before reporters broke into the world-affairs discussion to pop the first election question: What plans does Ike have for bringing "a certain group" of his party in Congress (the Old Guard) into the fold of "modern Republicanism?"

Diplomatically, the President promised only to labor "industriously and incessantly" toward proving "that some change in the understanding that the public has of the Republican Party is necessary." Would he overcome criticism heard in his first term that he failed to seize personal leadership in working with his party in Congress? With a wisp of exasperation, Ike diagrammed a wise man's views on leadership. "I am not one of the desk-pounding type that likes to stick out his jaw and look like he is bossing the show. I would far rather get behind and, recognizing the frailties and the requirements of human nature, I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him. he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone."

But if the President professed to be no desk-pounder, he was for emphasis a table-tapper on one question: In view of "the voters' decision to continue . . . with a Democratic Congress and a Republican Executive." does he regard his election as a mandate to continue New Republican programs? Said Ike: "I think if I didn't believe that this was somewhat of a mandate to me to push forward with what I have been trying to tell the United States is my policy, my beliefs, my convictions and a program, then I would be arrogating to myself a tremendous personal magnetism and standing that probably would make me about as egotistical as any man in the world. If they don't approve what I stand for, I would not understand why they voted for me."

Last week the President also:

P: Began, with his staff, preparation of his annual message to Congress on the State of the Union.

P: Received Indian Ambassador G. L. Mehta to discuss next month's visit to this country of Prime Minister Nehru,

P: Chatted with New York's Francis Cardinal Spellman, Detroit's Edward Cardinal Mooney and Los Angeles' James Francis Cardinal Mclntyre, in Washington for a meeting of the Catholic Bishops of the U.S. (see RELIGION) ; asked later by reporters whether the President had given them any personalized gifts, e.g., pencils inscribed with his name, Cardinal Spellman replied with a twinkle: "No, let's go back."

P: Accepted reluctantly the resignation of Dr. Arthur F. Burns as chairman of his three-man Council of Economic Advisers. The new chairman: fellow CouncilMember Dr. Raymond J. Saulnier (pronounced Soh-Nyay), 48, like Burns a Columbia University economics professor and specialist at Washington's nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research before joining the council last year.

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