National Affairs: The Gas Blast

As President Eisenhower was leaving the Glen Arven golf course at noon, Press Secretary James Hagerty told him that his message vetoing the natural-gas bill was ready for distribution to newsmen. Said the President: “I guess that will knock the golf off the front pages.” That afternoon the press took front-page note of Ike’s return to golf, but it was his pointed, seven-paragraph veto message* that won the banner headlines and spun editorial writers in their swivel chairs.

Defiant Arrogance. “I am unable to approve [the gas bill],” the President wrote. “This I regret because I am in accord with its basic objectives.” But “since the passage of this bill, a body of evidence has accumulated indicating that private persons, apparently representing only a very small segment of a great and vital industry, have been seeking to further their own interests by highly questionable activities. These include efforts that I deem to be so arrogant and so much in defiance of acceptable standards of propriety as to risk creating doubt among the American people concerning the integrity of governmental processes … I believe I would not be discharging my own duty were I to approve this legislation before the activities in question have been fully investigated by the Congress [see below] and the Department of Justice.”

Some type of legislation “conforming to the basic objectives” of the gas bill is still needed to encourage “initiative and incentive to explore for and develop new sources of supply,” he wrote. But he made it clear that, on its next time around, this particular measure could stand some improvement. Said he: “I feel that any new legislation, in addition to furthering the long-term interest of consumers in plentiful supplies of gas, should include specific language protecting consumers in their right to fair prices. ”

Changed Opinions. Obviously, a gas lobbyist’s $2,500 offer to South Dakota’s Republican Senator Francis Case (TIME. Feb. 20), along with other indications of high pressure generated by gasmen, had put a moral stigma on the bill and on the way it was passed, as far as the President was concerned. Before the Case case broke, Treasury Secretary George Humphrey, whose advice carries great weight with the President, was urging Ike to sign.

Post-Case, several Cabinet officers, including Humphrey, argued for a veto: so did some top White House aides. Meanwhile, Republican congressional leaders (all of whom had voted for the bill) trooped to the White House to urge the President to sign the bill on its merits—and then issue a statement decrying the gas lobby tactics. Eisenhower indicated that he would have no part of such a shilly-shally solution (and shortly afterward started drafting his veto message). Back on Capitol Hill, the G.O.P. legislators warned the bill’s Democratic supporters to get ready for the worst.

Deflated Issue. When it came, Oregon Democrat Richard Neuberger was the first to break the news to the Senate. Grabbing a hold-for-release text of the veto message from the A.P. wire, he strode onto the floor and read it off (thereby breaking the 2 p.m. release time). Political radarscopes began blipping wildly. “I’m dancing a jig,” cried Republican Senator Alexander Wiley, who bases his hopes for re-election in gas-consuming Wisconsin on his opposition to the bill. Then Wiley left the chamber literally to perform his jig for photographers.

Arkansas’ Democratic Senator William Fulbright, co-author of the bill, cried that Ike was “insinuating that the Senate was subverted.” Ohio’s Republican Senator George Bender rose in bellowing defense of the President, crashing his meaty fist upon the desk with such force that a pageboy darted forth to rescue a nearby glass of water. Some Northern Republicans, e.g., New Hampshire’s Styles Bridges and Massachusetts’ Leverett Saltonstall, who had voted for the bill, looked nervously toward their gas-consuming constituencies to watch how the voters would react to Ike’s charge of impropriety.

Damaged Credit. In gas-producing Texas (where some forewarned gasmen were ready with mimeographed statements criticizing the veto even before it was issued), Republican leaders despaired of delivering the state for a G.O.P. presidential candidate in the November elections. Attorney General John Ben Shepperd proclaimed that he would attempt to nullify the veto by preparing an interposition resolution of the sort being used against school desegregation.

The veto was a body-shaking blow to Texas’ Lyndon Johnson, Senate majority leader, and Sam Rayburn, House majority leader, who had used up much of their credit with congressional Democrats by pushing the gas bill through—and could never dream of mustering the votes to override. Because the bill had been managed by Democrats, Ike’s veto was sure to dull the Democratic attack on the G.O.P. as the party of “big business.” Acutely aware of this, Democrats responded by accusing the President of sharp politics: the gas bill veto came not from lofty motives, they cried angrily, but rather meant that Dwight Eisenhower had decided to run for reelection.

* The President has used his veto power 64 times, 26 times to kill general legislative items, 38 times on private bills covering damage claims by individuals against the Government.