“Mr. President,” I started. “Sherman Adams has written a letter in which he states that he went over the details of a pending Civil Aeronautics Board matter with an acting chairman of the CAB.
“It is contended up on Capitol Hill, that this was a violation of a CAB rule which states—it is improper that there be any communication, private communication that is, by any private or public person with a member of the CAB, with the examiners of the CAB, with the staff while the case is pending, except in those matters prescribed by law.
“I wonder if you could tell us whether you felt Mr. Adams was acting within the proper scope of his authority in this particular matter.”
President Eisenhower pleaded ignorance of news stories that had been on page one for days:
“Well, again you are bringing up a thing I have not heard of; but I will say this: There is a number of cases that come under the CAB that the White House must act on. Any time that they refer or have anything to do with the foreign routes that CAB has authorized, or refused to authorize, then the President himself is required to make the final judgment.”
The President was confused. He was assuming that the case was a foreign airline route case to which normal rules do not apply. The case about which Adams had written the letter, however, involved a domestic airline, North American Airlines.
“And, very naturally,” President Eisenhower continued, “my staff would want to get any additional information that I need. So, I would assume it is so on that case.”
“Mr. President,” I broke in to explain that the North American case was not a foreign line, but was a domestic airline. “On that line—”
I was cut off by the President’s cold stare, and abrupt comment: “I don’t want anything more about that.”
There was no opportunity to ask another question, but the record was much clearer to the nation’s editorial writers and cartoonists than it was to President Eisenhower.