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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, April 30, 1968
Newsday editor likes western economy
(Editor's note: Kansan reporter John Marshall rode from Kansas City International Airport into Lawrence Monday morning with former White House press secretary Bill Moyers. The following is the impression Marshall received.)
Bill Moyers scrunched up in the front seat of the motor car, lit a cigar, and unbuttoned his coat.
"You know," a rather courteous Southern accent quipped, "driving on a Kansas City freeway is nothing like a ride from my office to odwntown New York. There, driving is legalized bumper cars—only the tickets are more expensive."
He unfastened the attachable sun glasses and began to polish them, squinting onto the morning prairie. The label was still on the cigar, and he wriggled it off the end.
Cigar went back into mouth.
shades were clipped back into place and he clasped his hands around one knee as the car sped on.
"Moreover," he grinned, "I was on my way to dinner the other night and was hit by an opponent twice."
"I like it here out West," he mused, "because to travel anywhere in the East, you have to be a very rich man. It cost me $3.75 to travel the 'road' from New York to New Haven."
Moyers, former aide to a senator from Texas named Johnson, director of the Peace Corps under President Kennedy, and former press secretary to President Johnson, is now editor and publisher of Newsday, Long Island, N.Y. He seems at first encounter a unique blend of Southern gentility, New York sophistication, and earthy frankness.
His speech is dotted with southerness. "Minny tahms," instead of "many times," "Ahh." instead of "I," and "so glad to meet yuh," instead of a curt "how do you do"—and he means it.
Moyers leaned forward scowling. His cigar had gone out. He "struck it up" again, and leaned back, one arm propped across the back of the seat. A round gold cuff link—about the size of a nickle—gleamed.
"That's an old $20 gold piece," he grinned. "A very dear friend of mahn gave me those—but I was always careful never to wear them around the White House—gold drain, y'know."
The tie was neatly knotted, and the suit was pinstriped—subtle blue on dark charcoal. A lock of hair fell out of place, into place, as he examined the brochure about KU. Three questions, and it flew to the back seat. He might have memorized it.
An overwhelming astuteness settled in the car, whining down the turnpike, as Moyers began to talk about his White House experiences. It was Dean Rusk—not the Secretary of State. Mr. Johnson, not the President, Mr. Humphrey—not Mr. Vice-President. His judgments about the American economic situation and the war, reinforced with behind-the-scenes information, flew at saging mouths.
Credibility-
Continued from page 1 judge the reliability of a statement if it is attributed only to an informed source?" Moyers asked.
Opinions, predictions, and speculations coming from anonymous spokesmen, while increasing the public's apprehension about the credibility of what it reads, probably would not be abandoned, according to Moyers. A lot of skulduggery in government and in Congress would never come to light if everything had to be attributed, he said.
Continued from page 1
On the government side, Moyers said the President, at the risk of appearing to be hiding the facts, must remain quiet, until he can be certain his words will produce the intended result. He also said the circumstances of events and the subsequent change of presidential strategy, "makes lies out of the best promises."
credit card call . . ." It was to New York. He reeled off the credit number without flinching, reached his office, and talked shop for awhile.
The President must make decisions from inconclusive evidence, while, in retrospect, the press argues against the decision, but with the blessing of hindsight, Movers said.
Shades came off, tie loosened, and lights went on as he brushed his teeth ("I tried an electric toothbrush once, but I thought it was obscene") and shaved—almost at the same time.
Moyers offered several suggestions for bettering relations between the President and the
Mrs. Elmer McCollum, for whose late husband McCollum Hall was named, will be at KU May 4-7.
She will attend a tea and dinner in her honor so she may visit with residents of the hall and "see how the present generation of KU students lives," according to Diane Davis, Belton, Mo., junior, a coordinator of the activities.
The glasses came off and his eyes squinted again.
Mrs. McCollum will be in Lawrence for the private burial ceremony of the cremated body of her husband in Pioneer Cemetery across Iowa Street from McCollum Hall. His remains are being buried near the hall by his request.
Mrs. McCollum comes to Lawrence for burial of her husband
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The papers and speeches in his briefcase bulged out. Notes were scrawled and tossed back into little pockets.
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"Of course, we're talking among ourselves now," Moyers explained.
press, and a possible bridge of the credibility gap: regular press conferences, access of the President to second and third-level officials in the White House and each department, less use of backgrounders and a realization by presidents that they can never effectively govern unless they learn to reach the people through the mass media.
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Moyers smiled, rammed a hand in his back pocket, "Now Aah'l get the toll."
He almost did.
And then the Lawrence west exit.
The tie again knotted, hair brushed neatly out of place, phone calls and business in New York attended, Bill Moyers walked out the door, ready for a luncheon in the Kansas Union.
Cigar smoke billowed out from under the shades and teeth clench on the cigar said, "Well, things look pretty peaceful on Alabama Street."
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Moyers scrawled his name on the registration blank at the motel and headed for a quick shave.
The car cruised slowly, and as the driver shifted another gear, Moyers' hand fished for a scragly book of matches in the neat blue suit.
"Operator, I'd like to make a
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