Page 2
Summer Session Kansan
Friday, July 17, 1964
The Old Pro Keeps Busy
All eyes of late have been turned on that dramatic GOP battle out San Francisco way.
Before that, public attention was focused on the even more dramatic — and certainly more emotional — conflict over civil rights on Capitol Hill.
Meanwhile, that old pro in the White House has been making political hay. Many tons of it.
WE BRING the subject up with no raised eyebrows at the political activities of a President who occupies an essentially political job. Moreover, Mr. Johnson is a skillful political animal. We don't fault him for that. Nor do we intend to pass judgment either on the merits or the demerits of the various measures that have fallen, one after another, out of that Capitol Hill hay baler.
Instead, we contend only that there has been nothing like it in recent history. And while Congress itself is more and more getting that glazed look of the campaigner in a campaign situation, there undoubtedly will be even more to come before the 88th Congress calls it quits.
Briefly, look at some of the administration's legislative doings — remembering that some had their genesis in the Kennedy era and one or two, in fact, were passed in that desultory first session of this Congress:
- THE TAX CUT that Mr. Kennedy had in the works became reality early in this session. Virtually every taxpayer at every level of income got something out of that one. Business has responded, there's no doubt about that. You can't say that there is a boom, but nevertheless — and partly because of that tax reduction — the economy seems made to order for an incumbent seeking re-election.
- The tax bill was an overdue present for both the consumer and for business. For business, there had been, under President Kennedy, another break in the liberalized depreciation allowance. It, too, has had an effect on the economy. Obviously it helped put the business community in a generally happy mood.
Summer Session
- Nor can it be said that any federal employee will be less than happy with that pay raise bill that will affect virtually all civilian employees, including members of Congress, after the first of the year. It can be argued convincingly that this measure is overdue, and we see every justification for the increase in all
Summer Session
Kansan
111-112 Flint Hall
University of Kansas Student
Newspaper
Telephone UN-3198, business office
UN-3646, newsroom
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1304, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Member of Inland Daily Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50th St, New York 22, N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays and examination periods. Published Tuesday and Fridays during Summer Session. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kansas
three branches of the government. But let's be frank about it: Such things never hurt a party in power. Mr. Johnson is aware of that, we imagine.
- THEN, IN AN INHERITANCE from the Kennedy administration, this administration has seen the military enjoying the benefits of the pay increase that was effective last October. And another military pay bill has started through the works this year. Last year's action was a belated recognition of the economic plight of service people, that's for sure. However, let us be practical: Many military men do not vote, but the establishment, including dependents, children, relatives and the like, can add up to quite a few ballots. You don't hear any of the service people grousing.
- Then there was the farm program that reaches heavily into the Midwest and South and into wheat and tobacco. A makeshift program, yes. But it is a program when it seemed, after the wheat referendum last year, that the wheat farmers just might be permitted to simmer in their own juice. The Johnson administration, even with a jerry-built program, has given proof that it recognizes the plight of the farmer.
- SOCIAL SECURITY is a legislative topic that seems always to be brought up in an election year. This year there is a good chance for an across-the-board increase in benefits of 5 per cent. The Senate wants to include a substantial pension for large numbers of the aged not covered by social security. The pension plan is not expected to go very far. But the social security increase very probably will go as far as the President's desk, which is far enough. Again, we do not pass judgment on the merits of the increase. We merely suggest that future recipients of higher benefits may be of a mind to remember Mr. Johnson, come next November.
There is nothing final yet on the President's war on poverty. It has received favorable if party-line—action in committees and undoubtedly a start will be made on this large welfare program that carries the special LBJ brand.
Shades of the late Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was Mr. Johnson's political hero. But in a sense, FDR was a piker compared to Lyndon Johnson when it comes to doing something for large groups of people. Even the big cities. The Kennedy administration got a sharp setback when it proposed a department of urban
ALL THIS HAS BEEN achieved even while federal spending has actually been held down. Thus the administration has made a record that must impress at least some of the economizers. Largely, economy has come through Defense Department economies. There has been some juggling of the books, we suppose, as there usually is. But it cannot account for all the millions in economies. Nor can turning out lights in the White House. But it means something when the Treasury announces, as it did the other day that it will not have to borrow as much in the next three months as it had expected.
attains and the mass transit bill. Mr. Johnson signed the 375-million-dollar mass transit bill just this week. It's not the most politically exciting act in the world. But it is something for the boys in the cities to talk about in the campaign to come. It goes to show that LBJ overlooks practically no one.
NOR DO WE HAVE to confine the point to domestic and economic matters. The nuclear test ban treaty, a limited first step toward control of the atom, was signed last year. In the election, the Johnson administration is bound to reap some benefit from it. And on the matter of foreign aid: In the House, the administration scored quite a victory, which might make some people say cynically that there are even constituents in Pakistan. Others would say that it is proof of the Johnson leadership in foreign policy, and that is quite a campaigning point, too.
Outside the immediate context of the Capitol Hill struggle, there is the evidence of Mr. Johnson's political skill in the manner in which he has held the support (if not the deep affection) of labor and the liberals, and at the same time become something of a hero to rather large segments of the business community.
HE HAS SIGNED the historic civil rights law but nevertheless remains relatively popular in the South, for, after all, LBJ too can speak in magnolia tones. But the continuing allegiance of the South (shaken here and there, to be sure) has not meant a loss of popularity in the North. In all charity, we say that few Presidents of modern times have so skillfully worked both sides of every road.
No criticism is intended. Mr. Johnson has in scarcely more than six months written the record of the Johnson administration — and polished up the record of the Kennedy administration. No small achievement.
All of which suggests that there may be a special interest in the outcome of the GOP platform struggle, even out of the Scranton-Goldwater contest. For it will be instructive to see how the Republicans go about assailing the administration's record as they, of course, will do. That is part of the game.
And, being of a somewhat cynical turn of mind in matters political, we think it fair to outline this wide spectrum of voter groups that the old pro has been buttering up. Speaking politically—and politically only—it can all be assessed as an amazing performance by one of the masters of the business. It is not unkind to say that Lyndon B. Johnson doesn't miss many bets.
GOP Usually Is First
-Kansas City Times
}
WASHINGTON —(UPI)— Nobody knows why exactly, but it is traditional for the Republican Convention to precede the Democratic. The only exceptions were in 1888, 1956 and 1960. This year, the Democrats convene in Atlantic City, N.J., Aug. 24.
The 1964 GOP conclave marked the 108th anniversary of the party's first nominating convention, held at Philadelphia in 1856. Despite that longevity, the first Democratic convention occurred 24 years earlier.
BOOK REVIEWS
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM. by Nelson Algren (Crest, 75 cents).
This is one of the finest American novels in the last decade or so, and many will hail its availability in paperback. It appeared first in 1949, and attained considerable notoriety, especially when it was adapted into an excellent film in 1955.
"The Man with the Golden Arm" is a blunt, brutal and sensational story of dope addiction, sensational because there seems no other way to tell such a story. The hero is a young man who has become depressingly dependent on the relief from dope, and he lives in a world of gamblers, thieves and other junkies.
Nelson Algen has the unique capability of telling a violent and frequently sordid story with touches of poetry. This is a better book than "A Walk on the Wild Side," and it is quite likely a modern classic.
OUR MUTUAL FRIEND, by Charles Dickens (Signet Classics, 95 cents).
One of the most fascinating yet frequently confusing novels Dickens wrote is this huge blockbuster of a book. Its theme is money and what money can make of life; its plot is an involved mystery about inheritance, romance and murder; its satire is of the commercial society of England.
The book came late in Dickens' career, and young readers should be advised that it is heavier going than "David Copperfield" or "A Tale of Two Cities." Perhaps, for that reason, it is ultimately more rewarding.
Maugham's absorbing autobiography appeared in 1938, before he had written some of his good novels. But it still can be taken for what the title suggests: a summing up of an important life. Maughan is an old man, and has not written for years, but he has brought good reading to us for many years.
THE SUMMING UP, by W. Somerset Maugham (Signet Classics, 60 cents).
His notable books include "Of Human Bondage" and "The Moon and Sixpence." But Maugham has been more than popular novelist: he learned how to live and to tell others how to live. His long life is the subject of this book.
THE AGE OF REVOLUTION:
1789-1848, by E. J. Hobsbawm
(Mentor, 95 cents).
With excellent photographs that put this book in a class with cloth-bound books, E. J. Hobsbawm has framed a history that should be of enduring significance. Its scope is
the French Revolution to the revolutions of 48, a time when ideologies were changing much of Europe and the Americas.
Along with political revolution came the industrial revolution, which also is part of the author's theme. Hobsbawm his thesis is that the revolution he describes was the revolution of capitalist industry, of middle class society.
He notes that the revolutions gave us a new vocabulary — working class, capitalism, socialism, industrialist, nationality and communism. Hobsbawm is a reader in history at Birbeck College, University of London.
A MILLION YEARS OF MAN, by Richard Carrington (Mentor 75 cents).
The reader gets an absorbing and edifying combination of history and anthropology in this one. Richard Carrington is a scientific fellow of the Zoological Society of London, of the Royal Anthropology Institute and the Royal Geographical Society. His concern is man, but not just man in a historical sense.
Carrington goes beyond physical and biological terms in studying evolution. He includes mental and spiritual events, and divides the story into five parts: the earth's place in the universe, man's place on earth, and laws of evolution; how man-like creatures began to evolve at the dawn of the Pleistocene Age; the evolution of homo sapiens from hunter to food-gatherer; contributions of major civilizations, and speculations on the relationship of the human adventure to the whole of nature.
THE AMERICAN WAY OF DEATH. by Jessica Mitford (Crest, 75 cents).
"There were no flowers by request of the Kennedy family. At no point did a Cadillac hearse intrude; the coffin was transported by gun carriage. Although a bronze coffin was supplied in Dallas, according to Mortuary Management the President was actually buried in a wooden coffin, an aspect that other news media seem to have missed. The coffin was closed throughout the ceremonies... "
The book is an attack on the funeral industry—directors, cemetery promoters, florists, coffin manufacturers, monument makers, vault salesmen, the works. Those who missed it in its hardcover edition should have a look now.
You wave the red flag in the undertaker's face when you mention this book, one that stirred up readers in the same way as "Silent Spring," Jessica Mitford gives us a special bargain in this reprint: a discussion of the Kennedy funeral:
"What Are You Guys----A Bunch Of Atheistic Communists Or Something?"
B T
M
poor
licit
ice
tour
cont