THE PRESIDENCY: A Word to the Wives

One day last week. President Eisenhower entered Fitzsimons Army Hospital in Denver for his annual physical checkup, stayed overnight for the finish of laboratory tests and examinations. The doctors’ verdict: “Very favorable.” No detailed medical report was released, and one Army physician huffily refused to give details. Said he facetiously: “We found nothing wrong. You can say he does not have ingrown toenails.”

The President’s spirits were as good as his health. Ike was whipping through each day’s work in about two hours. In his free hours he slipped away to Cherry Hills Country Club for 18 holes of golf a day—a routine that did much to polish his lately ragged game (best score last week: 84). A handful of Eisenhower cronies, who, like Ike. spend considerable time at Georgia’s Augusta National Golf Club, showed up in Denver for a visit. Rubbing his group of Augusta friends together with his Denver friends gave Ike some pleasantly sparkling night life: a cocktail party and dinner at the Brown Palace Hotel, another dinner party followed by bridge and a third dinner party at Cherry Hills.

Ike also had an audience with Colorado State G.O.P. Chairman Charles A. Haskell and two Colorado political candidates, Lieut. Governor Gordon Allott, who is running for the Senate, and Donald G. Brotzman, candidate for governor. Ike told the group that, on second thought, he does not like the “middle of the road” label he himself hung on his program. According to Haskell, Ike felt middle of the road implied a Government that does not take a firm stand. “Moderate” would be better, Ike seemed to feel. The President also had some sage political advice for Allott and Brotzman, urged that their wives get into their campaigns as much as possible. Haskell quoted Ike as saying: “My own wife was a tremendous help to me in my campaign as she has been in the White House.”

Last week the President also:

¶ Huddled with G.O.P. state chairmen from 19 Midwestern and Rocky Mountain states (see The Campaign).

¶ Wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Knowland, stating once again his belief that there is nothing to be gained by breaking off diplomatic relations with Russia, as Knowland had demanded (TIME. Sept. 13) after Soviet jets shot down the Navy patrol plane off Siberia. Presidential aides said that Ike was miffed because Knowland had thoughtlessly—or deliberately—released the text of the telegram before it even reached Ike.

¶ Signed a bill revising the McCarran-Walter Immigration law so that immigrants convicted of misdemeanors can be eligible for entry into the U.S.

¶ Issued an executive order that would allow the sale abroad, for local currencies, of some $700 million worth of surplus farm commodities.

¶ Conferred with Attorney General Herbert Brownell and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover on ways to use the new anti-subversive legislation to crush the Communist Party.