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High Navy brass found out the truth of a remark that former Treasury Secretary Humphrey once made about Anderson: "Don't be misled about him just because he doesn't shout and pound the table the way I do. He can be firm as a rock." Shortly after he took over as boss of the Navy, Anderson overruled a promotion board's decision to pass over abrasive Captain Hyman Rickover, nuclear submarine pioneer, for the second and final time (two failures to win promotion to rear admiral meant automatic retirement). Determined to keep Rickover in the Navy, Anderson ordered a selection board to promote to rear admiral one engineering captain experienced in atomic propulsion. The only man in the Navy who filled the bill was Hyman Rickover.
After little more than a year as Navy Secretary, Anderson stepped up to the Defense Department's No. 2 post. Deputy Defense Secretary. In mid-1955 he left the Administration to take over as president of Ventures, Ltd., a Canadian holding company with worldwide mining interests. When Treasury Secretary George Humphrey decided to go back to the steel business, he persuaded Anderson to return to Washington to succeed him. In mid-July 1957, outgoing Secretary Humphrey took incoming Secretary Anderson to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to see the first dollar bills coming off the presses with Anderson's signature on them. They were also the first U.S. greenbacks to bear the motto "In God We Trust," long familiar on U.S. coins. Grinned Anderson: "This is pretty rugged. I no sooner take office than there is an expression of lack of confidence."
Texans Three. One big reason for Robert Anderson's success as Treasury Secretary is that, in vivid contrast with his outspoken, impatient predecessor, he stays on good terms with the Democratic majority on Capitol Hill. In this he has an accident of geography going for him: Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson and House Speaker Sam Rayburn are both Texans. Rayburn, an old and trusted friend, was the first man to hear about Texan Anderson's painful decision in 1952 to bolt the Democrats and vote for Eisenhower. Anderson keeps in close touch with the leaders, tells them in detail about his plans and programs. He also has a warm friendship with Speaker Rayburn's top fiscal adviser, Arkansas' Wilbur Mills, able chairman of the powerful House Ways & Means Committee. These leadership contacts, plus his unflagging attention to every staffer and stenographer, give Anderson more support in Congress than a member of a Republican Cabinet has any right to expect from a Democratic majority.
The relationship was sharply tested in his first big battle after taking over as Treasury Secretary: his quiet campaign in early 1958 to head off both Republicans and Democrats who wanted to try to cure the recession by cutting taxes. Within the Administration, Vice President Richard Nixon and Labor Secretary James Mitchell argued that it would damage the Republicans in the 1958 elections, and beyond, if the Administration let the Democrats grab the credit for combatting the recession by cutting taxes. On Capitol Hill, Sam Rayburn responsibly held off the Democrats who wanted to cut taxes, but he wavered in the face of arguments that the party could not afford to let the Administration get the credit.