Mixing It Up

Sometimes the prelim boys put on a tougher fight than the main eventers, and last week Hubert Humphrey and William Miller were flailing about on all sides. Not all the blows were above the belt line.

Opening his formal campaign in home-town Lockport, N.Y., with Barry Goldwater at his side, Republican Miller laced into Humphrey's ties with that "most influential of the radical leftist groups in Washington," the Americans for Democratic Action. Humphrey was a founder of A.D.A., and until last week a vice chairman. He resigned that office, but retained his membership. "I think we have made some headway," cried Miller. "Hubert Humphrey at long last has finally resigned as vice chairman of A.D.A. Maybe he will resign as vice-presidential candidate of the Democratic Party."

Miller used material gathered by former House Un-American Activities Committee Researcher Fulton Lewis III to intimate that Humphrey personally favors every position ever taken by A.D.A., such as recognition of Red China, readmission of Cuba to the Organization of American States, "total abandonment of, the Panama Canal," and turning Berlin over to the United Nations.

When Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield protested in a Senate speech that Humphrey actually opposed such positions and Arkansas Democrat William Fulbright fulminated that Miller was guilty of "foulmouthed vituperation," Miller turned furiously upon Fulbright, calling him "an apostle of retreat," "an advocate of accommodation," and a man who "spews forth venomous predictions."

"Something Very Odd." In the course of campaigning in eight states, Miller also blistered Adlai Stevenson ("He wouldn't stay in our Administration five seconds"), Defense Secretary Robert McNamara ("You can't wage war today on a computer system"), and Lyndon Johnson's Austin TV station fortune ("There is certainly something very odd when you make it as a result of having a monopoly in a city within an industry that is controlled by the Government itself").

In economically depressed South Bend, Ind., where foreign-born and first-generation Americans make up 23% of the population, Miller assailed any liberalization of immigration quotas. He declared that a Johnson Administration bill would "open the floodgates for any and all who wish to come and find work in this country" and would increase immigration next year "threefold." Actually, Miller was wrong on what the Administration's bill, now pending in House and Senate subcommittees, would do. It would drop nationality quotas, easing immigration for persons of needed skills, but would retain an overall quota. It would allow an increase of only 8,000 immigrants next year.

The Refrain. Humphrey, on the other hand, all but ignored Miller, concentrated his attack on Barry Goldwater. A good man with a gimmick, Humphrey continued to rival Mitch Miller in his ability to get audiences to sing along with his already familiar Atlantic City refrain: "But not Senator Goldwater."

Humphrey's writers are prepared to tick off Goldwater views that will of fend some special-interest group whereever Humphrey goes. Thus in urban Jamesburg, N.J., Humphrey zeroed in on Goldwater's negative votes on mass-transit and housing bills. "Most Senators voted to . . .", Humphrey began each indictment, then injected a singsong "bu-u-ut," which was all his listeners needed as a cue to roar: "Not Sena tor Goldwater." A beaming Humphrey would add: "Very good--you're all getting A." In Youngstown, Ohio, he delighted his audience with the line: "And I tell you most Americans will vote for Lyndon Johnson . . . But not Senator Goldwater."

In tiny Doland, S. Dak. (pop. 500), where he had grown up and was known affectionately as "Pinky," Humphrey received a sentimental reception that moved him to tears--and to a performance that made him sound almost like Lyndon speaking of his own home town. "We need to set an example in America of how we can reconcile our differences and still be different," Humphrey said, "of how we can have unity without unanimity, of how we can disagree without being disagreeable to one another. Posibly Main Street in Doland is the best place to talk about building a community of free men. You don't defend freedom in Washington alone. You defend it here by what you do, what you believe, what you say, and how you live."

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