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University Daily Kansan
Monday, Nov. 25, 1963
Lyndon B. Johnson
President Is Veteran Lawmaker
(Editors: Raymond Lahr, chief UPI Washington political writer, has watched first hand the career of President Lyndon B. Johnson as a house member, a senator, Democratic senate leader and vicepresident over the years. The following story gives an expert's insight on how the new chief executive will approach the national and world problems confronting him.-UPI Washington)
WASHINGTON—President Johnson moves into the White House with a hard-won reputation as the most skillful congressional leader in modern history.
How he shapes his own program in Congress and perhaps reshapes the Kennedy program will be gauged against his record of more than 30 years in federal service. During 23 years in Congress, he was sometimes a little to the left, sometimes a little to the right of the center of the Democratic party.
During three years as the late President Kennedy's vice-president, he was an unwavering backer of the more liberal Kennedy program.
While congressional leaders felt that it was too early to predict developments in Congress, they believed that the new President would throw his weight behind the still unfinished Kennedy program.
HE WAS NO longer a congressman from Texas, a senator from Texas or leader of the Democrats in the Senate, but President of all the United States.
As a presumed candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination next year, he must establish national appeal. He already has lost ground in the south because of his support for the Kennedy administration program, including its civil rights proposals.
In the past three years, he has won favor with the liberal wing cf the
party but Johnson still lacks Kennedy's strength in the big industrial states which have contributed to Democratic victories over the last three decades.
Johnson first came to Washington in 1931 as secretary to the late Richard M. Kleberg, D-Tex., and then returned to Texas as state director for the National Youth Administration. He won a special election for a vacant house seat in 1937 and came back to Washington as a fervent admirer of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
FOR A SOUTHERNER, he started with unimpeachable liberal credentials. But in 1947, he was affronting labor by voting for the Taft-Hartley law and its enactment over President Harry S. Truman's veto.
He was elected to the Senate in 1948 on his second try and was chosen Democratic Whip in 1551. He was elected Democratic leader two years later with an all-important assist from Sen. Richard B. Russell of Georgia, the skilled strategist of the southern bloc.
When the Democrats recaptured control of Congress in 1954, Johnson became majority leader and the Senate learned that it was in for some extraordinary years.
His popularity rating was low with the more Liberal Democrats—in part because he never believed in starting a fight he could not win. He was unerring in sensing the mood of Congress and the country. He displayed an unusual talent for coaxing votes from uncommitted Senators, for applying pressure at the right points to command a majority.
JOHNSON DID not start each year with a Democratic program but developed one from month to month by channeling pressures from segments of the two political parties and from the Eisenhower administration.
Kennedy Cabinet Stays
WASHINGTON—(UPI)—President Johnson today requested the entire White House staff of assistants who served the late President Kennedy remain on their jobs.
Press Secretary Salinger said Johnson had asked him to announce this. Salinger said Johnson did not indicate any length of time for the Kennedy appointees to stay at their post, and left decisions on the request to the judgment of each individual.
Johnson yesterday asked members of the Kennedy cabinet to continue to serve and he directed secretary of state Dean Rusk to send cables to all U.S. ambassadors overseas advising them to forego the submission of resignations customary for diplomats whenever a new president takes office.
In 1557, he was leading the fight to cut the Eisenhower budget. In 1958, he was fighting for anti-recession measures which would inflate the budget.
Meanwhile, he was upset by what he regarded as the Eisenhower administration's ho-hum reaction to the Soviet sputnik, launched in the autumn of 1957. As chairman of the Senate Preparedness Subcommittee, he presided over hearings which resulted in a great expansion of the U.S. space program.
The toughest assignments Johnson undertook were the civil rights bills enacted in 1957 and 1960—the first to get through the Senate since the reconstruction years. Intended primarily to safeguard voting rights, both fell short of Eisenhower administration proposals and were dismissed as token moves by civil rights crusaders in both political parties.
BUT THIS YEAR, Johnson has
attached no reservations to his support for the far-reaching civil rights legislation President Kennedy spent to Congress.
From his record, Johnson would be expected to be more willing to accept half a loaf. But the Capitol seems to change in appearance when its former occupants move into the White House.
New Party Leader
STOCKHOLM —(UPI)— Swedish Communist party circles said today C. H. Hermansson, a 45-year-old capitalist, is the leading candidate to succeed to the party leadership.
Hermansson is married to the daughter of a millionaire and is the editor of the party organ Ny Dag (New Day).
Hilding Hagberg, the present party boss, announced Wednesday he is retiring.
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Johnson to Talk To Congress
WASHINGTON — (UPI) — President Johnson, briskly taking command in a hectic day of crisis, yesterday scheduled a major policy speech before a joint session of congress Wednesday.
The White House announced this after the new chief executive won pledges of unity and support from the nation's top government, business and labor leaders during the troubled weeks ahead.
The assurances were received by telephone and at Johnson's first cabinet meeting at the White House. The half-hour cabinet session came a little more than 24 hours after an assassin's bullet felled his predecessor, John F. Kennedy, in Dallas, Tex.
At the end of the most momentous day in Johnson's 55 years, the White House announced he would address the House and Senate at 12:30 p.m. EST on Wednesday.
Informed sources said Johnson would spend most of tomorrow reviewing policy papers and conferring with some of the allied chiefs of state who are remaining in Washington after Kennedy's funeral.
The dignitaries will include French President Charles De Gaulle, British Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and others from around the world.
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