THE PRESIDENCY: Commencement & Survival

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By way of pressing his crusade into Capitol Hill, the President breakfasted (cantaloupe, scrambled eggs and bacon, kippered herring, toast, coffee) with 15 Republican Congressmen. When the small talk amid the table clatter was over, Ike got his serious business off his chest. "These," said he, "are four simple musts." The four: Defense Department reorganization ("If war should come, and I pray that it doesn't, we would have to make improvements anyway"); a strong foreign aid bill to counter Soviet economic penetration; extension of reciprocal trade ("We all want to help domestic industries, but the only way the U.S. can survive is to have a fairly contented and hopeful international community"); the necessity of maintaining "a reasonable attitude" about the recession ("We must put our backs into these problems . . . but we must also use our heads").

"What's the Date?" So engrossed was Ike in elaborating his "musts" that he forgot the time. At 9 o'clock one of the Congressmen broke in to remind him of his Cabinet meeting. As the party broke up. New Jersey's Peter Frelinghuysen asked the President to autograph his place card. "What's the date?" asked Ike. "June 6," said somebody. "Oh," mused the onetime Allied Commander in Chief, reaching for his pen. "D-day."

Last week the President also: Visited with former Army Secretary Frank Pace Jr., now General Dynamics Corp. president, who dropped by the White House with four young, eager U.S. politicians (Young Republicans' Chairman John Ashbrook and Treasurer Fred Dixon; Young Democrats' President Nelson Lancione and First Vice President Richard L. Crawford) who are on their way to a Paris convention next month. Object: to bring future political leaders of the NATO countries face to face while they are still in their intellectually formative years. Beamed Ike: "Splendid idea." Signed antirecession bills permitting 1) the FHA to extend its mortgage-insuring activities by $4 billion (to $31.5 billion), 2) the Federal Government to advance money to states to extend unemployment compensation benefits (TIME, June 2), at the states' option, for half again as long as state law provides.