A New Leadership?

In a recent press conference President Eisenhower answered a question on the re-proposal of the Bricker Amendment by saying that his opposition to any weakening of presidential treaty-making powers had not changed "one iota." A few days later Secretary of State Dulles strongly attacked the bill; and it now seems effectively pigeon-holed in Senate Committee.

In contrast to his vigorous stand on the Bricker Amendment has been the President's attitude toward many of the planks of his own legislative program. Too often his proposals have been endangered by his failure to exercise proper leadership. His willingness to make unnecessary concessions to protectionist minority groups like the watch industry weakened his position on his foreign trade bill. By his eagerness to delegate authority, Eisenhower has created a vacuum of leadership in which major decisions like issuance of the Yalta papers have been made evidently without his knowledge. His toleration of censorship in the selection of books for the U. S. overseas libraries has belied the idealistic stand of his Dartmouth "book-burning" speech. This hesitancy to make his own position entirely clear has produced an often-confused security program.

This year the President presented Congress with a sound legislative program, but he has often failed to give it effective support. Several of his proposals have not yet faced Congress. Of these his $3,500,000,000 foreign aid bill should meet particularly rigid opposition from right wing members of Congress. If the President's strong and effective stand on the Bricker Amendment indicates a beginning of the more powerful leadership he will need to cope with such opposition, then it is significant and encouraging.