A Message to the South

Swinging into the Deep South for a nine-hour trip last week, the President of the U.S. was greeted by none other than Alabama's rebellious Democratic Gover nor George Wallace. Kennedy's visit had been scheduled long before the Birmingham troubles began; there was a speech to make at the goth anniversary celebration of the founding of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Term., and there was also TVA's birthday party at Muscle Shoals, Ala.

Wallace met Kennedy at Muscle Shoals, applauded the President's speech, then hopped into Kennedy's helicopter (with members of Alabama's congressional delegation) for a 35-minute jump to the Redstone Arsenal at Huntsville, Ala. In the chopper, Kennedy and Wallace discussed Birmingham in what was carefully described as a "not unfriendly" manner. At Huntsville, the President switched over to his jet and headed for home. Alabama's Wallace, looking aggrieved, would tell newsmen merely that he and the President had a "brief discussion." Neither Wallace nor Kennedy had budged one whit from his position, and Wallace spent most of a press conference complaining about what he considers misuses of presidential powers.

For his part, the President's answer to Governor Wallace--and to the nation--was contained in a spirited and eloquent speech at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Though he never once mentioned the word Negro, Kennedy clearly was aiming his message at the Wallaces of the South. "This nation," he said, "is now engaged in a continuing debate about the rights of a portion of its citizens. That debate will go on, and those rights will expand, until the standard first forged by the nation's founders has been reached-- and all Americans enjoy equal opportunity and liberty under law. But this nation was not founded solely on the principle of citizens' rights. Equally important--though too infrequently discussed--is the citizen's responsibility. For our privileges can be no greater than our obligations. The protection of our rights can endure no longer than the performance of our responsibilities. Each can be neglected only at the peril of the other. All Americans must be responsible citizens, but some must be more responsible than others, by virtue of their public or private position, their role in the family or community, their prospects for the future or their legacy from the past."

It falls to the educated man, said Kennedy, to assume the greater obligations of citizenship--for the pursuit of learning, to serve the public and to uphold the law. The educated man "knows that for one man to defy a law or court order he does not like is to invite others to defy those which they do not like, leading to a breakdown of all justice and order. He knows, too, that every fellow man is entitled to be regarded with decency and treated with dignity. Any educated citizen who seeks to subvert the law, to suppress freedom, or to subject other human beings to acts that are less than human, degrades his heritage, ignores his learning and betrays his obligation. Certain other societies may respect the rule of force--we respect the rule of law . . . No one can deny the complexity of the problems involved in assuring to all our citizens their full rights as Americans. But no one can gainsay the fact that the determination to secure those rights is in the highest traditions of American freedom. In these moments of tragic disorder a special burden rests on the educated men and women of our country--to reject the temptations of prejudice and violence, and to reaffirm the values of freedom and law on which our society depends."

Last week the President also: > Suffered a two-point drop in popularity with the voters. Gallup pollsters, taking their monthly pulse of the national mood, found that Kennedy, who began the year with a 76% approval and skidded to 66% in March and April, slipped further in May to 64%.

> Observed the end of his six-year term as member of the Harvard Board of Over seers with a White House stag dinner for 42 fellow Harvard types, including President Nathan Pusey and Charles A. Coolidge, senior member of the Harvard Corporation. Following cocktails and dinner (dessert: glace academique), the guests made little speeches about the affinity of Harvardmen for the presidency (John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and their host), and Kennedy got up to make a few remarks. As he spoke, there was a thud. There, on the floor of the candlelit State Dining Room, lay 54-year-old Overseer Laurence Mallinckrodt, who had had a mild heart attack. After Mallinckrodt was made comfortable on the floor to await an ambulance, the President and his company discreetly tiptoed around him and assembled in the Red Room for more talk and a few old school songs. > Got word that his three dogs, Charlie, Pushinka and Clipper, will wear District of Columbia dog licenses Nos. 1, 2 and 3, beginning July 1. Charlie, a Welsh terrier, already carries No. 1, but Pushinka (Khrushchev's gift to Caroline) and Clipper (Old Joe Kennedy's gift) have held tag Nos. 9 and 10. They will move up to replace the No. 2 dog, Jefferson, otherwise known as Little Beagle Johnson, owned by Vice President Johnson, and the No. 3 dog. G. Boy, owned by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. After July 1. Little Beagle will carry tag No. 4 and G. Boy will be wearing No. 5.

> Saw to it that his wife's social secretary Letitia (Tish) Baldrige will have a proper send-off next week when she leaves her job to become a kind of flack-of-all-trades for Joe Kennedy's Merchandise Mart in Chicago. Tish, who was social secretary to David K.E. Bruce when he was U.S. Ambassador to France, and who worked in the same capacity for Clare Boothe Luce when she was U.S. Ambassador to Italy, was a ball of fire in the White House. But a ball of fire could not very well assume the role of anonymity that Jackie Kennedy requires. So in Tish's place will go Jackie's former roommate at Miss Porter's School, a "shy and retiring" lady and Manhattan travel consultant, Nancy Tuckerman.

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