On the Receiving End

In the give-and-take of partisan politics, New York's tart-tongued G.O.P. vice-presidential candidate, Bill Miller, usually gives a lot more than he gets. But last week, as Miller swept along a 4,931-mile trail through Indiana, Iowa, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Oregon, California, New Mexico and Colorado, he found himself on the receiving end for a change, fending off a spate of charges.

No Secret? One was leveled by Mississippi's former Democratic Congressman Frank Smith. In 1951 or 1952, Smith said, Miller offered to get him a $350-to-$500 monthly "public relations" retainer from a company with which Miller was associated. At that time, Smith happened to be a member of a House subcommittee that was considering a bill, co-sponsored by Miller, dealing with private development of Niagara Falls power. Miller never actually mentioned the bill, said Smith, but after he voted against it, he never heard another word from Miller about the retainer. "It took quite some time for the idea to sink in that this had been some very direct lobbying," said Smith. Miller denied that he had ever offered Smith "$5 or 5-c-."

Then there was the disclosure that Miller has been a $7,500-a-year director and assistant secretary of the Lockport (N.Y.) Felt Co. throughout his 14-year career in Congress, and has spoken at least twice on the House floor against bills adversely affecting the felt industry. "It's never been a secret," protested Miller. But he never exactly broadcast it around town either. For the fact is that few--if any--of his colleagues were aware of his official connection with the company when he was defending its interests in Congress. In addition, Miller owns $27,500 worth of stock in Lockport Holdings, Ltd., a Canadian-based outfit in which Lockport Felt has substantial interests.

Utter Contempt. Another unkind cut was delivered by the Republican but anti-Goldwater New York Herald Tribune. In an article on Miller's career, the Trib disputed the claim made in his official biography that he "played a major role in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals during the famous trials at Nuernberg." Actually, Miller spent only four months with the War Crimes Office, performed nothing more major than examining captured war documents. Said Miller lamely: "I never claimed I was one of the trial lawyers."

On one issue, however, Miller saved himself from the kind of attack that can never be completely countermanded. He announced that the deed to his $60,000 Bethesda, Md., home had been subject to an anti-Negro covenant before he owned it. He bought the house ten years after the Supreme Court's 1948 decision voiding all such clauses. This was entirely different from the situation he had publicized in Austin, Texas, where an anti-Negro clause was inserted in the deed to property Lyndon and Lady Bird sold three years before the Supreme Court decision.

Miller described the attacks as "a typical Democratic operation. The Justice Department, the Army, the Internal Revenue Service, and every other bureau of Government are doing nothing these days except trying to investigate Senator Goldwater and myself. They're trying to get me off Humphrey and Johnson and make me defend myself for the rest of the campaign. I will not be diverted into a waste of time answering sleazy, unsubstantiated smears." Added Barry Goldwater: "Bill Miller's honesty is beyond reproach. The smears against him have my utter contempt."

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