Milestone Departure

If any man other than the President himself symbolized the first Eisenhower Administration, it was marble-cool, granite-solid Treasury Secretary George Magoffin Humphrey. He was Dwight Eisenhower's closest Cabinet friend, the President's most trusted adviser in domestic affairs, the architect of a fiscal policy that helped bring record-breaking prosperity in peacetime. Months ago, George Humphrey telegraphed his intention to return to private business at the end of the 85th Congress (TIME, Feb. 11). The announcement last week of his resignation was therefore no surprise. But it was a highly significant landmark: it was in a strong sense the dividing line between the first Eisenhower Administration and a second Eisenhower Administration with new needs, new plans and new ambitions.

Doubtful Breakthrough. George Humphrey was just the man Washington needed in the years 1953-56. He had turned Cleveland's M. A. Hanna Co. from a money-losing ($2,000,000 a year) mining potpourri into a business giant with holdings worth $25 million. He could be counted upon to administer Treasury as a business--with a public trust--instead of a political plaything. Midwesterner Humphrey was a proud conservative who believed--and went far toward proving-- that individual initiative could best thrive with a minimum of Government interference. It was most advisedly that Ike once called Humphrey "my best appointment."

But George Humphrey, a Taftman before 1952, had a hard time swallowing what the President came to call Modern Republicanism. He could see the point of defense costs as long as they dealt with essential hardware, but he had little sympathy with foreign economic aid, and even less for the "welfare state" programs that wedged their way into the 1958 budget. His doubts broke through, almost by accident, when he made his famed remark last January that continued big budgets would bring on a hair-curling depression. Humphrey's prediction strongly influenced his business friends and encouraged a boom in G.O.P. conservatism; ultimately it led to a bipartisan economy binge in Congress that threatened not only the budget but the whole Eisenhower program.

Relieved Sigh. Ike's letter expressing "profound regret" at Humphrey's resignation was heartfelt, for from their first meetings he and Humphrey had understood each other. The President was pleased that, before leaving Washington (probably to take over the board chairmanship of Pittsburgh's National Steel Corp., which he helped found in 1929), Humphrey will see the 1958 budget through Congress. But many an Eisenhower Republican breathed a sigh of relief when the White House announced, well in advance of the fact, that Humphrey's successor will be former Deputy Defense Secretary Robert B. Anderson (see box), who could well become the fiscal symbol of the second Eisenhower Administration.

Like Humphrey, Bob Anderson is a solid businessman--and 20 years younger. Like Humphrey, he is a good man to turn to in moments of crisis. But Anderson also has a firsthand knowledge not only of the U.S.'s defenses but of the perils and opportunities of cold war; e.g., last summer President Eisenhower secretly sent Anderson to the Middle East to pave the way for King Saud's U.S. visit, which in turn paid massive premiums during the recent Jordanian crisis.

Thus, making the key change in his Cabinet to date*, the President swings from a Treasury Secretary who helped build the economic base to one who can help make the most of it during the remainder of Ike's term.

*Only three other members of the remarkably stable original Eisenhower Cabinet have left: Labor Secretary Martin Durkin, Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Oveta Culp Hobby, and Interior Secretary Douglas McKay.

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