Businessmen in Government

Report Outline
Conflicts of Interest in Business Government
Unpaid Experts in Government Service
Private Interests and Public Policy
Proposed Solutions for Conflicts Dilemma

Conflicts of Interest in Business Government

Democratic Attacks on Eisenhower Appointees

Attacks on the Eisenhower administration as a businessman's government—opened with the President's first cabinet appointments—are expected to have an important place in Democratic campaign strategy for next year's elections. Recent statements by prominent Democrats indicate that their party will bear down hard on the conflicts of interest allegedly created by liberal use of big businessmen in government posts.

The October number of the Democratic Digest, official publication of the Democratic National Committee, accused the administration of putting “in one important position after another… men… whose lives… have been spent advancing the interests of their firms and industries” and of giving them “the chance to shape governmental policy to their business point of view.” Former President Truman, at a Democratic rally in Albany, N. Y., Oct. 7, spoke of “government by special-privilege people.”

Secretary of Commerce Weeks had said earlier that those attacking use of businessmen in government were in fact opposed to almost all policies of the Eisenhower administration. “This is an attack on the free enterprise system by people who simply don't believe in the things this administration believes in.”