Bill's Baedeker

THE CONGRESS

Arkansas Democrat James William Fulbright is a professional man of the world. Chairman of the great Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he is widely traveled, points with vast pride to the Oxford degree that he won as a Rhodes scholar, is father of the scholarship plan that bears his name and has enabled 24,000 Americans to widen their horizons in studies abroad.

It was, therefore, all the more astonishing that Fulbright last week came up with a gratuitous pronouncement more to be expected of an Arkansas "hawg caller" than of a responsible and influential student of world affairs. In a lengthy Senate speech discussing for eign aid, he got to talking about the U.S. balance-of-payments problem, suggested that U.S. tourists could help by touring at home instead of abroad.

"It does seem to me," he said, "that the American people could bring themselves to travel within the United States and spare themselves the sophisticated debauchery and artistic pocket picking of Paris, at least for a year or so. Is the patriotism and enlightened self-interest of our people so superficial that they cannot, just this year, go to Las Vegas instead of Monte Carlo, or New Orleans instead of Paris, or Colorado instead of Switzerland, or California and Florida rather than Cairo? They will find they can do it for half the price, without insults or shakedowns, and perform a real service to this country."

Paris journalists of course had a field day with Fulbright's reference to debauchery and pocket picking. Said the Paris-Presse: "We poor Parisians know only the ordinary side of these two activities--prostitution and stealing. We were beginning to get a little bored with it all, and we're thinking of taking a little trip to the U.S.A. At Las Vegas, taking someone to the cleaners has become a work of art. They even take your pants when there's nothing else around. New Orleans seems to be the best place to hunt for sophisticated pleasure, and we'd like to have a taste. But now the Senator comes and upsets our plans for a trip by saying we can find the same fun in Paris. French tourists: don't leave your country--the good Senator is going to send us some addresses."

Added Paris-Jour: "The stupid Frenchman who says 'Don't go to the United States because Chicago is a gangster city, or to Dallas, the city of the rifle with the telescopic sight, or to Las Vegas, racket capital,' doesn't find a very big audience. Let's hope that Mr. Fulbright won't find any bigger one in America."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.