"Don't You Fellows Forget"

After a sunny, month-long golf vacation in Newport, R.I., Dwight Eisenhower returned to Washington in a down-to-business, where's-everybody-else-been mood. To Republican congressional leaders gathered at the White House, he made it bouncily clear that he intends to push hard for his own program and fight hard against unwelcome Democratic programs. "Dammit," he said, "don't you fellows forget that I'm going to be around for quite some time yet."

He was in a combat-ready mood, too, at his first press conference in four weeks, firmly got off his answers on a lot of subjects. Said Ike:

The Republican Ticket: "I think the Nixon-Lodge ticket is going to do well." He would do "whatever I can" to help them win, but he indicated that he thought they did not need much help: "These two fellows can take care of them selves pretty well."

Nixon: "I don't see how the Vice President could be more closely drawn into the consultative process than he has been in the past." But executive decision-making is still "my responsibility, and will be until noon on Jan. 20."

Khrushchev: His talk of heading up the Soviet delegation at the U.N. disarmament debates come September is "obviously a propaganda thing."

Nuclear Tests: The Geneva test-ban conference has been "very disappointing.'' If the talks make no progress, "then we have to take care of ourselves," meaning that the U.S. might resume underground nuclear tests.

Agriculture: Secretary Ezra Taft Benson (whom Richard Nixon regards as a heavy political burden) has been "forthright and courageous in trying to get enacted into legislation plans and programs that I think are correct." For Ike to regret having kept Benson on the job "would be almost a betrayal of my own views."

The Economy: "All in all, while you do not see a picture of a burgeoning economy at this particular period, you certainly don't see any signs that anyone can call a recession or depression."*

Politics & Congress: "All this talk about me starting a bunch of new programs is just a little bit silly." He was "just asking for what I have always believed." And "all this talk about Congress having to take weeks and months to get simple actions carried out and accomplished is a little bit silly," too. If the Democrats really wanted to "enact a constructive program, it could be done very quickly, because they've got a 2-to-1 majority in both houses."

* The President's optimism drew an edgy retort from United Steelworkers' President Dave McDonald. "I would say," said McDonald, "that the President is being illadvised. With 135,000 members of our union unemployed and 300,000 more working part-time, there is the possibility of a real recession developing in our country"--and even a "full-fledged depression" by January.

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