The First 100 Days

Lyndon Johnson marked the end of his 100th day in office last week in a most uncharacteristic way. He was sitting still, listening to a concert given by the visiting Houston Symphony Orchestra in Washington. But the rest of the week was more like it.

Back from a four-day swing through California, the President played host to 70-odd Congressmen and their wives at a White House party (see following story). Next day he swore in the St. Louis Cardinals' retired star Stan Musial as director of his Physical Fitness Program to succeed former Football Coach Bud Wilkinson, who aims to run for the Senate on the G.O.P. ticket in Oklahoma. "Stan the Man" looked around the crowded Cabinet Room with a broad grin, cracked: "If I'd known I had so many friends in Washington, I might have run for office." Missouri's Senator Stuart Symington, who might be a target of future Musial political moves, smiled weakly.

Lyndon even made U.S. hatmakers happy--something that tousled Jack Kennedy was never able to do--by inspiring an L.B.J. hat. The Hat Corp. of America announced plans to put out two-and three-gallon models with relatively narrow two-inch brims--scaled-down versions of Lyndon's five-gallon Stetson. One thing that is not scaled down is the price--which ranges from $12.95 to $100. All that Lyndon gets from the deal is publicity, but that's enough.

"Most Important Step." The President signed into law the tax-cut bill, 13 long months after Congress first took it up. "It is the single most important step that we have taken to strengthen our economy since World War II," Johnson told a nationwide television audience after the signing. When it goes into effect this week, he said, it will give U.S. consumers an extra $25 million a day to spend, and Lyndon urged them to spend it, by all means.

His eleven-minute talk ended, Lyndon and Lady Bird hurried off to Jacqueline Kennedy's seven-bedroom brick house in Georgetown to attend a small gathering that was part housewarming and part memorial to the late President. As a tribute to his predecessor who had "worked so hard and so long" on the tax bill, Lyndon gave Jackie four of the 62 pens he used to sign it.

The following morning, Johnson took off with Lady Bird and their two daughters for a day of serious politicking in Florida. Extraordinary security measures were laid on for the trip. The President's exact schedule was kept secret. He hopped from place to place in an unmarked helicopter flanked by two others; after word had gone out that he would arrive by chopper at Miami's International Airport, he touched down at a country club miles away. Lyndon said that there were "reasons to take additional precautions," but would not spell them out. "Maybe a year from now, or two years, or five years from now, I can tell you what the situation was," said Press Secretary Pierre Salinger. The most persistent rumor was that the Secret Service had been tipped that a Cuban kamikaze pilot might try to ram the presidential plane or that a Cuba-based missile might be fired at it.

As it was, Lyndon started things with a real blast. In a chilling rain at Palatka, he touched off a 150-lb. dynamite charge to break ground for the 107-mile, $158 million Cross-Florida Barge Canal. Afterward, he stopped off in Palm Beach for a 20-minute visit with Joseph P. Kennedy, ailing father of the late President. Then he headed for Miami Beach.

There, it was all politics. Security men swarmed around his motorcade, and an Army helicopter hovered 75 ft. overhead while two rifle-toting agents looked down from an open door, but Lyndon seemed irritated when police tried to hold back the crowds that pressed in on him. "I want to shake hands with the people," he said.

Wall-to-Wall Wealth. Johnson was at his political best with a stump-stirring speech at a $100-a-plate roast beef dinner for 3,500 in the Fontainebleau Hotel. He paid tribute to Kennedy, vowed "to continue the work he began." He said he intends to prove "that Government can be progressive without being radical, prudent without being reactionary." In an atmosphere of wall-to-wall wealth, he announced that he would send his message on poverty to Congress this week. Then he turned to civil rights.

"Full participation in our society can no longer be reserved to men of one color," he said. "We intend to press forward with legislation, with education, and with action, until we have eliminated the last barrier of intolerance. For as long as freedom is denied to some, the liberty of each of us is in danger." Though the audience was well larded with Southern Democrats, Johnson was applauded four times in six sentences.

The speechmaking over, Lyndon, his wife and his daughters ducked into the Fontainebleau's plush La Ronde room to watch Cyd Charisse dance, later strolled along neon-lit Collins Avenue. Lyndon got to bed by 2 a.m., was up before 5 to drive to Homestead Air Force Base.

Good Grades. Back in Washington, the President held his first full-dress press conference on live TV before some 300 reporters in the State Department Building. He was self-possessed and articulate, if a little wordy, as he fielded 18 questions on topics ranging from Bobby Baker to the war in Viet Nam. Nearly two-thirds of the questions touched on Lyndon's handling of foreign affairs, a touchy issue with the President, and there were times when he seemed on the edge of irritation with his interrogators. But he warmed up when a reporter popped one of those "glad-you-asked-that" questions: How did he feel about his first 100 days?

"I am deeply impressed by the spirit of unity in this country," he said. "The continuity and the transition created confidence in the country and in the world." And, he added, "while I have been lavishly praised by some, and I think lavishly criticized by some, I think, generally speaking, the American nation has conducted itself as you would expect it to in a crisis and would get very good grades."

And how does he grade himself? "Insofar as I am concerned," he said, "I am rather pleased with what has been accomplished in the first 100 days."

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