Letter to Representative Wainwright of New York on the National Defense Education Bill.

[Released July 8, 1958. Dated July 7, 1958]

Dear Mr. Wainwright:

It was a pleasure to meet with you and your associates and to receive later your letter concerning the action of the House Committee on Education and Labor on H. R. 13247.

I am pleased, of course, with your report that the Committee has approved many provisions which generally follow the recommendations I made last January. I believe enactment of the emergency four-year program, recommended by the Administration, would have far-reaching benefits to education and to national security in the years ahead. There is a compelling national need for federal action now to help meet emergency needs in American education.

This bill fulfills most of the objectives I outlined in my message to Congress last January. As I told you and your colleagues, I am in general sympathy with the provision for a loan fund which has been added. I do suggest, however, that the addition of this provision should lessen the need for scholarships. I hope, as the bill progresses, that adjustments will be made to reduce the number of scholarships. The Committee bill, while adding the loan fund, also increases the scholarships from the 10,000 recommended by the Administration to a figure somewhere between 18,000 and 23,000 a year. I also hope that the payment of scholarship stipends will not only be restricted to those students who show outstanding ability, but will also. be paid only to the extent that such students need financial help in order to get a college education.

The passage of a sound educational bill is a top-priority objective for this session of Congress and I heartily support your efforts to achieve this objective. If the United States is to maintain its position of leadership and if we are further to enhance the quality of our society, we must see to it that today's young people are prepared to contribute the maximum to our future progress and strength and that we achieve the highest possible excellence in our education.

With warm regards to you and your associates, I am

Yours sincerely,

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER