Building a Library

Jackie was constantly on the phone. Rose Kennedy was in North Carolina, where, with Teddy, Evangelist Billy Graham and Governor Terry Sanford, she appeared at a fund-raising rally. The North Carolina "quota" for the $10 million John F. Kennedy Memorial Library on the banks of Boston's sleepy Charles River had been set at $200,000, and this rally alone produced pledges of more than that amount.

In-Law Steve Smith, the Kennedy family's political and financial trouble-shooter in New York, was soliciting in Manhattan.

Senator Teddy Kennedy, after taking leave of North Carolina, flew to Paris to thank the French government for a $100,000 donation, then began a ten-day tour of European cities. In Italy, he met with businessmen. In Germany, he would talk with members of a fund-raising committee in Munich, explain the project to students in Hamburg and labor leaders in Frankfurt. Then on to Brussels and Zurich. There was even a stop at the Vatican to explain to the Pope about the library.

The man overseeing the entire fund-raising effort is Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who was scheduled to appear this week at the Manhattan opening of an exhibit of J.F.K. memorabilia, including the late President's rocking chair, and to urge more contributions. Well in advance, he had told his staff that he would accept no radio or television engagements that did not have to do with the library.

To All Employees. In Washington, New Frontier chieftains were busy spreading the word. Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, who had made a faux pas early in the Kennedy Administration when his name appeared on a Democratic fund-raising note to oil and gas industry executives, now sent a memo to all "Heads of Bureaus and Offices" in his far-flung department. The solicitation was part of a "Government-wide campaign," said Udall, adding: "I am sure we are all eager to contribute our share toward this building in his honor. ... As in other campaigns, your chairman should submit a weekly performance report in writing to N. O. Wood, director of management operations. Detailed instructions will be forthcoming."

Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach sent a memo to Justice Department employees: "A program has been organized for all of us who wish to contribute to do so. Special rosters have been prepared for contributors to sign so that their participation can be made part of the library's archives. This effort is completely voluntary." Similar messages went out from Commerce Secretary Luther Hodges and Agriculture Secretary Orville Freeman.

There is a fairly extensive history of presidential-library fund-raising efforts. Friends of Franklin D. Roosevelt got off a memo to Agriculture Department employees suggesting that they contribute to the Hyde Park Library, then did some fast backpedaling when the press caught wind of it. Harry Truman's campaigners solicited top businessmen, pointing out that all contributions were, of course, taxdeductible. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and Adlai Stevenson took to nationwide television to ask donations for Dwight Eisenhower's library in Abilene, Kans.

Those Who Give. But there has never been anything to compare with the Kennedy library movement. Under Bobby's direction, committees have been set up in more than 40 states--chaired by such men as Governor John Reynolds in Wisconsin, Governor Philip Hoff in Vermont, former Governor Dennis Roberts in Rhode Island, and Continental Air Lines President Robert Six in Califor nia. Eugene Black, former president of the World Bank and chairman of the library's board of trustees, has sent a letter to every foreign embassy, from Afghanistan to Yemen, suggesting how their countries might contribute, if they are of a mind to do so.

A committee that includes Black, IBM Chairman Thomas Watson and former Defense Secretary Robert Lovett is in charge of soliciting from U.S. corporations. Among the field fund gatherers: Ford Motor Co. Chairman Henry Ford II,* Standard Oil (New Jersey) Chairman M. J. Rathbone, and U.S. Steel Chairman Roger Blough.

Among individuals, contributions include $209,000 from Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon, $250,000 from Andre Meyer, senior partner in Wall Street's brokerage firm of Lazard Freres, and amounts ranging down to loose change from 55,000 others. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. has pledged $2,000,000. From abroad, gifts have come in from the governments of Venezuela ($100,000), Liberia ($25,000), and Puerto Rico ($100,000). The list of business donors includes IBM ($350,000), Continental Air Lines ($100,000), and Fiat Motor Co. of Italy ($50,000, and an additional $50,000 from Fiat Vice President Giovanni Agnelli).

The plans for the Kennedy library have already gone far beyond the small, quiet, scholarly haven that Jack Kennedy envisioned in his lifetime. To that project, Harvard in 1963 granted two acres of its Charles Riverbank property. Now there are plans to make the library an institution in the study of contemporary political science, with a big-name, not-necessarily-Harvard director. Some 200 tape-recorded interviews have been conducted with the great and the near great to create an "oral history" of the Kennedy years. So far, about the only holdout is former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who explains that he is preparing his memoirs and hopes "to write about his relations with President Kennedy with more feeling than he could put into a recording."

Some Harvard officials are beginning to fret about the giant scale of the plans, but it may not be necessary. For there already is talk among the fund-raising enthusiasts about giving up the Harvard-donated site and purchasing a much bigger property.

* Ford was also putting his shoulder to the wheel for Lyndon Johnson. In an interview with the Detroit Free Press, Ford said he would support Johnson in November over any Republican candidate, even though he has never before voted for a Democratic president. Said Ford of Johnson: "I think he's terrific."

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