Wednesday, Feb. 5, 1964 University Daily Kansan
Page 3
White House to Have Television Facilities
By Merriman Smith
WASHINGTON — (UPI) — Back-
stairs at the White House:
stalls to work is going ahead on the project. Work is going ahead on the project to set up permanent television facilities in the White House which will enable President Johnson to have news conferences on short notice and without his having to do more than walk a few feet from his office.
Last Sunday when the executive wing of the White House was deserted except for Secret Service men and uniformed police on duty, experts from the television networks and the General Services Administration (GSA) looked over a conference room across a hall from the President's office.
Their goal is installation of lights and cameras which can be switched on in seconds should the President decide to communicate with the nation over his airwaves. The same setup will be used for presidential visitors who for many years have been interviewed in the driveway outside the west wing of the White House.
PRESS SECRETARY Pierre Salinger still refers to the project as being "under study." But it is now much more than an idea under exploration. Physical planning is under way
Italian Workers Ask Higher Pay
ROME—(UPI) A 24-hour walk out today by a million government employees left Italy without trains, schools, mail delivery or long-distance telephone service.
Another 340,000 civil servants, including policemen, remained on duty.
The nation's three major labor unions—Catholic, Communist and Socialist—gave the word for the strike following the collapse of last-minute negotiations with the government yesterday.
ment yesterday:
The strike was called to emphasize demands for wage and pension increases.
The walkout went into effect at midnight and the national railway system ground to a halt, with trains continuing only to the nearest stop.
The Ministry of Transportation arranged a skeleton transportation service using buses and trucks. An earlier plan to have the army run an emergency train service was rejected as unfeasible.
Callers who dialed international telephone operators were told politely, "Sorry, no calls. We are on strike."
strike. Senior officials planned to keep some government offices open but services directly affecting the public were expected to be totally suspended.
Luigi Petri, minister for bureaucratic reform, said last night the pay and pension benefits demanded by the civil servants would cost the government $720 million.
government and state The government employees, who have been pressing for changes in the pay system for several years, are threatening further strikes unless their demands are met. 413
less their demands. The government of Premier Aldo Moro in which Socialists and Christian Democrats are cooperating for the first time, is pledged to an antinflation policy and says it cannot meet the demands immediately. Moro is trying to cut spending and restore confidence in the lira, Italy's monetary unit.
Amintore Fanfani, premier of the last government, had promised to meet many of the civil servants' demands by last July but the government fell before Fanfani could carry out his promise.
The problem of the civil service has plagued numerous Italian governments. Italy has 1.34 million government employees. This number includes the magistrates and policemen, who are not on strike today.
Many citizens complain that Italian bureaucracy is slow-moving and antiquated and that public services are often inefficient.
During the 1948-52 rebuilding of the center part of the White House, much time, effort and money went into construction of a so-called broadcast room on the ground floor. Apparently the architects and builders were not familiar with needs of the broadcast industry and the room was used only a few times. During the Eisenhower Administration, the broadcast room was turned into a storage area.
The civil servants protest that they are poorly paid and that pay scales for the same job vary from one government department to another.
During the 1948-52 rebuilding of the center part of the White House, much time, effort and money went
When the late President John F. Kennedy entered the White House, his wife cleaned out the broadcast room and turned it into a handsome reception room and library. It is a beautiful room, but still unsuited for the needs of radio and television for a number of reasons—space, acoustics and certain electronic difficulties which would make the area difficult to light properly.
ALSO, there are few rooms in the White House sufficiently large to house a news conference. The President's meeting with reporters last Saturday was in the motion picture projection room on the east side of the White House. Comfortably, this room can accommodate about 50 or 60 persons plus lights and cameras. If Johnson gives any sort of advance notice of a meeting with reporters, the projection room quite obviously is too small.
The television setup being considered in the so-called "Fish Room" near the President's office is even smaller than the west wing projection room, but there is space for expansion. The room could be made more spacious by moving the west wall and thus reducing the size of the lobby through which presidential visitors pass to reach the chief executive's office.
This historic lobby has lost its importance progressively as Presidents tend to have their more important visitors routed via other White House entrances. The west wing lobby today largely is a staging area for reporters and photographers as they wait to go into either the office of the President or the press secretary's suite of offices. The more important visitors enter by basement or other entrances and they are seen by the press only when the President wants them to be seen.
Reduction of the size of the lobby may produce some sentimental pangs in the White House staff, but there would be little or no functional loss.
Why Can't You Remember
A noted publisher in Chicago reports there is a simple technique for acquiring a powerful memory which can pay you real dividends in both business and social advancement and works like magic to give you added poise, necessary self-confidence and greater popularity.
NEW YORK—(UPI)—Victims of emphysema, one of the respiratory diseases linked to smoking by the U.S. Surgeon General's office, are finding help toward a more normal life through breathing exercises usually used by singers.
Breathing Exercises Offer Lung Cure
According to this publisher, many people do not realize how much they could influence others simply by remembering accurately everything they see, hear, or read. Whether in business, at social functions or even in casual conversations with new acquaintances, there are ways in which you can dominate each situation by your ability to remember.
To acquaint the readers of this paper with the easy-tofollow rules for developing skill in remembering anything you choose to remember, the publishers have printed full details of their self-training method in a new book, "Adventures in Memory," which will be mailed free to anyone who requests it. No obligation. Simply send your request to: Memory Studies, 835 Diverse Parkway, Dept. 3241, Chicago, Ill. 60614. A postcard will do.
Emphysema is a distension of the lung sacs which traps large amounts of carbon dioxide. The afflicted literally smother. Continued panting for breath eventually strains the heart and causes invalidism and eventual death.
Amelita Galli-Curei, the retired Metropolitan Opera prima donna, was emphysema's most recent famous victim. Ironically, the breathing techniques that Mme. Galli-Curei knew so well are being applied successfully to patients in the New York area by the Musicians Emergency Fund (MEF), a unique music therapy agency originally founded to provide employment for musicians.
ans' hospitals but had never engaged in music therapy.
ONE OF the four MEF therapists active in this work, which is in the research stage, is Joseph Florestano. He is a Manhattan singing teacher who first heard of the MEF's newest project from Frank Chapman, husband of singer Gladys Swarthout. Florestano had entertained at veter-
"That was two years ago and it has been the greatest thing that has ever happened to me," he said. "It is a wonderful experience to work with people in distress and see hope and happiness grow within them. My enthusiasm and interest in this work is boundless."
Florestano explained that he teaches gasping emphysema sufferers to re-learn natural muscular processes involved in good natural breathing. Better action of the diaphragm increases needed oxygenation and restores muscular patterns, at first consciously and later involuntarily.
Florestano asks his patients to perform their breathing exercises several times a day. They start by "sipping air on the lips like hot tea," graduate to breathing through their nostrils instead of their mouths, then work with deeper breathing exercises to involve the area around the lower ribs.
"I EVEN use vocal exercises to help my patients regain normal speech." Florestano said. "Often their voices have been dropped way down by continued gasping. I teach
them to inhale before speaking and to speak as they exhale."
After patients have mastered these techniques in bed, they are encouraged to do them while sitting, standing, walking, and finally climbing stairs—a most difficult exertion for emphysema sufferers. Some of the patients make such a comeback that they can return to work.
One of Florestano's prize pupils is Isabelella C. McCann of Flushing, N.Y., who had to stop every 15 minutes to rest when doing simple household chores. Now she can walk upstairs without discomfort, walk for blocks, and hold down a part-time job.
"IT IS really a miracle what these exercises have done for me in four months," she said.
The pilot research has resulted in a number of hospital discharges. A report on the efficacy of breathing retraining will be published in medical journals in the near future. The organization has received some special grants for the program but it has had to depend for the most part on its own limited funds.
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