Conversion & Resignation

"Thrift is [once again] more than a word," the Taft-owned Cincinnati Times-Star cried happily in mid-1955 when John Baker Hollister, 64, onetime law partner of the late Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, was named to coordinate U.S. foreign aid. As a Congressman from 1931 to 1936, Republican Hollister had fought the New Deal, voted against Cordell Hull's Reciprocal Trade Act. He was a longstanding disciple of ex-President Herbert Hoover, and it was Hoover who urged him on the Eisenhower Administration as the successor to free-swinging Harold Stassen as director of the International Cooperation Administration. Such were the misgivings about John B. Hollister's intentions toward foreign aid that he snapped as he took office: "I certainly would not accept direction of any program with the idea of cutting its throat."

But soon after Hollister got down to work, New York Timesman James Reston nominated him to membership in a "4-H Club" within the Administration bent on gutting foreign aid. The other members: Treasury Secretary George Humphrey (soon to resign), onetime Under Secretary of State Herbert Hoover Jr. (who resigned last winter), onetime Budget Director Rowland Hughes (who resigned last year, died three months ago). But the more hardheaded John Hollister saw of foreign aid the more he appreciated its hard-bitten value, and the less he attempted to cut down functions he once thought he might eliminate. This year he tried hard to make the case for a long-term foreign-aid program before a meat-ax-minded Congress, and, with a sizable assist from the President, won impressive support for his case (although Congress has yet to vote the requested $3.8 billion appropriation).

Last week Hollister took up his option to resign at the end of a two-year term, sent a letter of resignation to the President that showed just how far he had come. Foreign aid, when properly administered and wisely aimed, is effective and essential to mutual security, he concluded. "This must continue as long as aggressive international Communism threatens us. In the nature of things this far-flung effort ... is occasionally wasteful and inefficient. Chances must be taken, and in many cases it will be some years before we can see how successful the gamble may have been." Then Taftman Hollister added a touch that was the most meaningful of all. "I have been conducting," he told the President, "what I think is the most interesting work in the Government."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.