Newspapers / The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / March 8, 1968, edition 1 / Page 5
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IFORDIAN A 'Completely Political Person' votes. This was described as ranging from outright arm-twisting to an overwhelming emotional bath, designed to suffuse the recipient with the Johnson view on pend ing legislation. As Majority Leader, the President viewed his position as that of leader of the "constructive opposition," criticizing the Eisenhower administration most often for favoring a balanced budget over adequate defense measures and for lack of adequate leadership for the country as a whole. These concerns were reflected in the President's main legislative interests; armed services and defense legislation. From the time of his assignment to the House Armed Services Committee (then the House Naval Affairs Committee) through his service on the Senate Armed Services and Appropriations Committee, the Pres ident concerned himself with these issues. In the process he acquired a profound di liked and mistrust for "brass hate" and the military in general. On succeeding to the Presidency, he first committed himself to a continuation of the Kennedy programs at home and abroad, regarding the imposition of con tinuity on the government, as being his primary task. The President's first major legislative success was the passage of the AND EDUCATION One of Gardner's favorite topics over the years has been the need for "self renewal" and the "pursuit of excellence" (the titles of his two books.) He coined the term "pursuit of excellence" years ago, and since then it has become a widely used cliche among college administrators. Gardner has firm beliefs about what constitutes real education. "All too often we are giving our young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants," he once said. "We are stuffing their heads with the products of earlier innovation rather than teaching them to innovate. We think of the mind as a storehouse to be filled when we should be thinking of it as an instrument to be used." Gardner has frequently emphasized that colleges and universities should per mit great diversity in the circumstances under which learning takes place. He also has held that there is a "false emphasis" on formal schooling. "When populace as a whole comes to recognize that education should be an enduring thing in their lives and can take place in a variety of settings, then the artificial emphasis on certain types of education will recede. Emphasis will be on individual fulfillment and personal growth, however, they may best be furthered. And they will be sought for all." Kennedy Civil Rights Bill in 1964, follow ed by the $11.5 billion tax cut. President Johnson's first independent victory, how ever, was the initiation of his "Great Society" program. In the first two years, the President enjoyed outstanding success in his relations with the Legislative Branch, attaining a 58% rate of passage for Pres idential legislation. This rate went up after his election in 1964 to 69%, cul minating in the 1965 session of Congress with the passage of the Medicare Bill, the Voting Rights Act, Federal Aid to Ed ucation, and the Appalachia Aid Pro gram. By 1966, however, the legislative honeymoon seemed to be at an end. Civil disorders at home, the increasing intensity of the Vietnamese War, domestic inflation, and increasing criticism from the liberal left all took their toll. The mid term Congressional elections of 1966 re sulted in a gain for the Republican party of seven seats in the House and three seats in the Senate. Concurrent with this gain for the opposition came an increasingly critical attitude on the part of the President's own party. The President found that he could no longer operate as master leg islative politicain, and that he must now concentrate on fulfilling the needs of the Analysis by Walter Grant of CPS Gardner thinks society must constantly change. In the 1962 Carnegie annual re port, he put it this way: "Every society must mature, but much depends on how this process takes place. A society whose maturing consists simply of acquiring more firmly established ways of doing things is headed for the graveyard - - even if it learns to do those things with greater and greater skill. In the ever renewing society what matures is a system or framework within which continuous innovation, renewal, and rebirth can oc cur." The most important characteristic for an ever-renewing system, he says, is its "built-in provisions for vigorous crit icism." Colleges and universities, according to a speech Gardner made in 1959, have the major role in fostering freedom. He said, "They are powerfully committed to a philosophy of individual fulfillment. They understand the dynamic power of know ledge to induce change, and understand how and why we must adapt ourselves to change. There is no segment of the pop ulation that is more deeply committed to keep the individual free in a world of organization, or better able to develop the technical knowledge made necessary by the complexity of modern organization. Nor is there any segment of the pop ulation more deeply committed to the —By John Grice Executive Branch in a more traditional role as initiator of legislation from the White House. This must have involved a major reassessment of his methods and his role. This period was marked by in frequent press conferences and the sug gestion that the President was "sulking." Criticism of the President came to revolve increasingly around the question of United States involvement in Vietnam, and the consequent cutbacks in domestic programs. This situation must have given the President most concern. Clearly, he came to the Presidency with the intention of putting the final capstone on the pyramid of New Deal legislation begun at the time of his arrival in Washington. He had hoped to go down in the history books as the founder of the Great Society, a new era in American government and politics. He found himself embroiled in stead in a foreign war, a confusing war, a war in which the massive strength of the United States seemed rather a hindrance than a help. Add to this his traditional distrust of the military and the effect of the war on his favorite programs, and the result can only have been frustration. Guns or Butter? - - Vietnam or the Great Society? - - These are the dilemmas which face the President, exacerbated by criticism from the legislative branch on his handling of the war, criticism from the liberals for his involvement in the war, criticism from the conservatives for not winning the war, criticism from civil rights groups for initiating and then not being able to continue vital domestic programs, crit icism at home and abroad. It is a wonder that he would want the job for another four years, and while it seems unlikely that the President, given his background, would willingly give up the office, it is after all possible. If he does not decide to give up the office, the United States is in for one of the most intriguing and important elections in the history of the nation. The President will be faced with the task of convincing the American electorate that his current difficulties are temporary, that the real meaning of his administration lies not in his prosecution of the war but the substance of his domestic legislation, and that, given some solution to the war, he is the one to lead the nation for another four years. idea of excellence. And finally, college and university people have exhibited in their own lives a higher quality of ded ication than is apparent in many parts of the society." Gardner first became recognized as a major innovator in education when he was president of the Carnegie Foundation. During that period, he helped establish Russian research centers at Harvard, Prince ton, and Michigan. PAGE FIVE
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
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March 8, 1968, edition 1
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