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PAGE FOUR LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON With the candor characteristic of con temporary American politics, the President has not yet announced his candidacy for re-election. However, as Thomas Jefferson remarked, "In this business, few die and none retire." We may assume that having spent 36 years reaching his present posi tion, the President will leave office only as a result of an electoral defeat. The President, due to the prestige of his office and the political patronage available to him, is regarded as having overwhelming leverage against any dissidents in his own party. Despite the candidacy of Sen. Eugene McCarthy, this rule will probably hold good in the current election year. In running for the nomination, as in runn ing for re-election, the President enjoys unparalleled exposure and an ideal plat form from which to present his views. No one else can claim the same familiarity with the problems facing the nation, no one else can claim as much experience in dealing with these problems. For these reasons, a serious threat to the President's renomination seems unlikely, should he decide to seek it. So much has been written about the President's background that it is not nece ssary to give more than the highlights in When Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare John W. Gardner left the Cabinet, educators lost their closest - - if not their last - - true friend in the Johnson Administration. Gardner has been one of education's chief spokesmen for more than a decade, and he undoubtedly will continue to work for the advancement of all levels of education. But most educators believe his exit from the Cabinet will leave a vacuum which will indeed be difficult to fill, especially at a time when many federal education programs are being sacrificed to help pay for the Vietnam war. A successor to Gardner is not likely to be named immediately. At a recent press conference President Johnson said he had "no immediate timetable" on appointing a new secretary. Undersecretary Wilbur Cohen is expected to serve as acting secretary for a time. Cohen is generally expected to continue most of Gardner's policies, but his main interests are in social security and welfare. He is unlikely to be the innovator in education that Gardner was. Cohen may be named secretary event ually. However, speculation has also been centering on Ben Heineman, board chair man of the Chicago and Northwestern this short presentation. Briefly, the Presi dent began as Secretary to U. S. Repre sentative Robert Kleberg of Texas in 1932, was Texas Director of the National Youth Administration, 1935-1937, U!S. Represent ative, 1937-1948, U.S. Senator, 1949-1961, Vice President 1961-1963, and President, 1963-date. The President's entire adult life has been spent in the government of the United States. His education in politics, his personal beliefs and practices, his en tire personality has been shaped by this experience. He has been described as a "completely political person," and this description seems accurate. The President's years in the House of Representatives are not particularly re markable, save for his attachment to the then Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, and his adherence to New Deal programs. This support of President Roosevelt's leg programs. This support of President Roos evelt's legislative programs was to operate to Johnson's benefit, as he was one of many young Congressmen who received special attention and support from the White House, particularly in his unseccess ful attempt to gain a seat in the Senate in a 1941 special election. In 1948 after a close primary and a contested return, the President entered the Senate, winning NEWS ANALYSIS: SECRETARY 6ARDNER Railroad, who has served as chairman of presidential commissions on welfare pro blems and civil rights. Henry Ford II and former Gov. Terry Sanford of North Carolina have also been mentioned. None of those men is likely to be as interested or helpful to education as Gardner was. Without doubt, Gardner has been the most scholarly member of President John son's Cabinet. He has been the major link between the President and the academic community, and without him Johnson probably will find it more difficult than ever before to maintain any rapport at all with educators and intellectuals. In addition to his prestige with aca demicians, Gardner also has enjoyed un precedented respect and influence on Capitol Hill. Many Congressmen have given him credit for a new enthusiasm which has been generated in the Depart ment of Health, Education, and Welfare during his two and one-half years as Secretary. Gardner leaves the Cabinet to head the Urban Coalition and its attack on the crisis of the cities. He also will work as a consultant to the Carnegie Corporation, of which he was president for 10 years before his appointment to the Cabinet July 27, 1965. by a ratio of two to one in the general election. An understanding of the President's career in the Senate is central to an under standing of the man. Entering in the "class of 1948," which included such other leading figures as Hubert Humphrey, Estes Kefauver, Robert Kerr, Russell Long, Paul Douglas, and Clinton Anderson, the President soon discovered that the road to success in the Upper House lay not in associations with the Executive Branch, nor in his connections with his mentor in the House, Speaker Rayburn, but rather in attachment to Senator Richard Russell of Georgia. Russell, long acknowledged as one of the most powerful men in the Senate, accepted the new pupil and in two years, the President found himself in the position of majority Whip. During the first two years of the Eisenhower adminis tration, the President held the position of Minority Leader in the Senate, finally at taining his position as Majority Leader after the 1954 election. It was as Majority Leader that the President first established himself as a master practitioner of the art of politics. His best-known techniques in volved close attention to the needs and positions of other members of the Senate and personal persuasion in rounding up His reasons for leaving are unclear, although most observers think his res ignation was related to the severe budget cuts in his department. Others speculated that he also wanted to disassociate him self with the Administration's foreign policy. Gardner denies that he is leaving to protest "any issue or incident." He says his departure is "simply a judgment on where I can be most useful in the immediate future." As HEW Secretary, Gardner constantly pushed for better schools, equal educat ional opportunities, eradication of slums, and improved health facilities. He has been largely responsible for considerable progress in these areas, but he recognizes that much remains to be done. In a recent progress report to HEW employees, he said, "Too many children and too many adults in this free society still live under the subtle but powerful tyrannies of ignorance, disease, want, discrimination, physical handicap, or mental illness. Those tyrannies keep them dependent. We want them to be free and strong." As this statement indicates, Gardner is an able and responsible social critic. In a recent speech, he said, "We are in deep trouble as a people. And history is not going to deal kindly with a rich nation that will not tax itself to cure its miseries." THE GUI
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
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March 8, 1968, edition 1
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