Rockin' the Capitol

For a place he once called "the most sinful city" he had ever visited, Washington, D.C. has lent Evangelist Billy Graham a pretty respectful ear. By last week, at the end of a nine-week prayer "crusade" there, Billy had preached to audiences totaling 500,000 people.*Recorded conversions: 6,244.

The biggest turnouts (more than 9,000 a night before the end of the crusade) were for the evening prayer meetings in the National Guard Armory. "And they were not just the ordinary people," Billy said last week. "As near as I can tell, we averaged between 25 and 40 Congressmen and about five Senators a night." Among Billy's greatest supporters were Tennessee's Percy Priest and Missouri's O. K. Armstrong, who ushered at meetings, New Hampshire's Senator Tobey ("the warmest-hearted friend I had"), and Senator Hoey and the rest of the representatives from Billy's home state of North Carolina. Vice President Alben Barkley told Billy admiringly: "You're certainly rockin' the old Capitol."

Besides preaching at other key points in town, Evangelist Graham held daily noontime prayer sessions in the Pentagon auditorium. The response he got there surprised him. "Never in my whole religious experience," said Billy, "have I seen such a hunger for religion as at the Pentagon."

His one disappointment in Washington was his snub by Baptist Harry Truman, who failed to answer repeated invitations to attend the meetings. (Said Billy, "I guess he was just too busy or something.") As a consolation prize, he went to Manhattan last week for an hour-long talk with Episcopalian Douglas MacArthur. "He is one of the most inspiring men I ever met," Billy said. "He is deeply religious."

Billy hopes eventually to see every candidate for the presidency, including Truman: "I want to give them the moral side of the thing. Of course, I do not intend to endorse any candidate." High on Evangelist Graham's agenda for March: 1) an address to 500 British ministers in Westminster Abbey, 2) a visit to France, where he hopes to chat with Ike Eisenhower.

*Population of the Washington metropolitan area: about 1,500,000.

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