March 28, 1958 – MBS – Cedric Foster News and Commentary – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
March 28, 1958 – The day before, the politburo in Moscow voted unanimously for Nikita Khrushchev as Prime Minister. Reaction on the day after was swift. According to news reports in the West and Vatican Radio in Rome, he now had as much power as his predecessor Joseph Stalin. The vote which concentrated the power of State and the power of Party in Khrushchev alone was seen as not a good sign to the West. In the UK, opinion was voiced that Khrushchev stood the very good chance of being a more powerful figure than Stalin; a man denounced by Khrushchev, but who was, in reality doing the same thing. It was seen as the end of one generation and the emergence of another. And only time would tell how it would wind up.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill – the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to give President Eisenhower authority to spend 1959s money in March of 1958. The move was unprecedented and it was taken in order to stimulate business and to bring the country out of the economic doldrums. The President wanted to spend $840 million, but the committee said he wouldn’t be able to spend more than $200 million of it. The resolution would allow the President to spend up to 50% of the amount in the 1959 fiscal year budget, set aside for supplies, materials and equipment in the remaining three months of the present fiscal year.
Labor Secretary Mitchell said the Democratic Jobless Pay proposal was discriminatory. He wanted quick action on the President’s plan for continuing existing benefits for a longer time.
The House Appropriations Committee approved a $750,00.00 appropriation for the Civil Rights Commission.
The President and Mrs. Eisenhower were going to spend the upcoming weekend at their Gettysburg farm for the first time since January.
And American Aid to Yugoslavia officially ended today.
That’s just a small slice of what went on, this March 28, 1958, as reported and commented on by Cedric Foster for Mutual News.
