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Letter to the Governors of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts on the Establishment of a Special Inter-Agency Committee on Textile Problems.

May 19, 1959

[Released May 19, 1959. Dated May 18, 1959]

Dear Governor :

It was a pleasure to meet with you and with Governors and on April twenty-fourth.

I have reflected considerably on the difficulties of the textile industry, the subject of our conference.

There is, of course, no single cause for the problems of this industry. High production costs, competition from abroad, and other problems, are all important. Nor is there any single solution. Adjustments in farm price supports, which the Administration has sought and partially obtained, will tend to equalize raw material costs. Area development, vocational training, and Federal employment services can also help in meeting the problems of the New England area. There are, moreover, the safeguards of our trade agreements legislation as well as voluntary limitations abroad on the amount of textiles shipped into this country. While the economic problems of this industry do persist, this many-sided program has been of considerable help.

You recommended the establishment of a special inter-agency committee on textile problems. After consultation and reflection, I think it would be wise to set .up such an inter-agency committee on an ad hoc basis. I am proceeding with this plan. As I visualize it, this committee would concern itself with a number of the important problems affecting the textile industry. It would obtain various views including those of the advisory committee consisting of three representatives respectively from management, labor, and the public, which the Secretary of Commerce is setting up. After careful study, and to conclude its responsibility, the committee would make its views known, informally, to the Secretary of Commerce.

I appreciate your sincere interest in the welfare of the textile industry, which I share, and I value your counsel as to how our efforts can be made more fruitful.

Sincerely,

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

Note: This is the text of identical letters addressed to Governor Wesley Powell of New Hampshire, Governor Christopher Del Sesto of Rhode Island, and Governor Foster Furcolo of Massachusetts, following their meeting with the President at the White House.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Letter to the Governors of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts on the Establishment of a Special Inter-Agency Committee on Textile Problems. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/234897

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