Dear Martin:
As I told you this morning, I deeply regret the necessity expressed in your letter of August thirty-first compelling you to return to private life. I have no course, however, but to respect your wishes, and to accept your resignation as of this date.
You will be both missed and remembered. I say this not only with the warmth of a friend, but also as one deeply concerned with all the problems that are the special charge of the Department of Labor.
Your patient skill and rich experience have been of unique value. They have enabled you, in a remarkably short time, to summon talent and to initiate policies that can inspire a truly effective Department of Labor in the future. You know, I believe, beyond the need of reiteration, my personal conviction that the principal key to the strength of our working democracy is the assurance of both industrial peace and the vitality of our free labor unions. The extent to which these purposes can be served by the Federal Government in large measure depends upon the vigor and capacity of our Department of Labor. You can be sure that these simple convictions--which, I know, you fully share and which have governed our decisions to this date--will prevail with equal force in the future.
I sincerely extend to you my warm wishes for a career of renewed distinction in whatever you undertake, and my lasting appreciation for the spirit of unselfish service that has characterized your work in this Administration.
Sincerely,
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Note: Mr. Durkin was appointed Secretary of Labor on January 21, 1953. His letter of resignation and the President's reply were released at Lowry Air Force Base, Denver, Colo.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Letter Accepting Resignation of Martin P. Durkin as Secretary of Labor. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/231994