Kingsport Times from Kingsport, Tennessee • 25

KINGSPORT TIMES 3-D I Thursday August 3 1972 George McGovern in Hanoi Hanoi may say Whether you think it our business or not we are not making any deal about the prisoners until you remove what we regard as a threat to come back in So what would George say to that? It is not unlikely that since the people of Hanoi have heard the opinion expressed in this country that our war in Vietnam was unjustified Hanoi might also make as a condition of peace an admission from the United States government that he did wrong to get into the war and therefore we should be willing to pay North Vietnam indemnity for all the damage that it has suffered at our hands Has George McGovern considered this possibility? We are reminded that a another famous journey for peace was once made to Germany by a British statesman who thought he was ready to meet the terms of Hitler only to find that his willingness to give in only made Hitler make new demands We do not want another such umbrella man In making his promise to go to Hanoi immediately after his inauguration George McGovern is taking a leaf from the book of Dwight Eisenhower It will be remembered that the promise to go to Korea and settle the war won a great deal of support for the late President Of course Eisenhower did not end that war but he did bring about a cease- fire and get the long drawn-out conference at Panmumjon started Just how Senator McGovern intends to achieve his goal is still a little hazy It is true he intends to go armed with two actions One the order to end all bombing without any quid pro quo from Hanoi and Wf hinltlrv political picture Local boy makes mcauliffc Macs Window Older people should not knock youths behavior because if they examine their consciences they will remember that they were not any better when they were young But on the other hand young people should not knock old folks for the way they talk because they should remember that they are going to talk the very same way when they are no longer young An 18-year-old college girl came home and shocked her mother by using dirty four-letter words And when mother reprimanded her she said Oh Mom everybody talks this way now so get with it" But that girl would get the shock of her life if her mother said Oh yeah? Well any more of that kind of talk from you and I will warm your and smack your and wash your mouth out with soap so get with it! good There is some frustration on the part of a lot of younger people who are wound up in the conservation movement because they have missed that in their lives They are groping for the opportunity to have that basic rapport with Mother Nature and natural resources Jenkins says There will be no political activities for Jenkins after he takes the oath of office as one of the three TV A directors Im a firm believer in a man doing a job to which he has been assigned I will fulfill an obligation to refrain from becoming involved in political activities" Jenkins said He noted however he would be in his early 40s when he finishes serving his nine-year appointment He does not venture a guess as to what political activity he might engage in after that One of the first problems he will concern himself with after becoming a TV director will be the rising cost of coal The TVA generates much of its electricity through the use of coal about 34 million tons a year Higher coal costs contributed largely to TVAs recent 25 per cent hike in charges it makes to bulk electricity users He has experience in this line also He was instrumental in drafting the Surface Mine Act of 1972 that regulates strip mining and which is considered a model law What do the people in Hawkins County think about this local boy who is making good? They love him In fact just last Saturday they named a bridge which is almost in the shadow of a TVA steam plant the William Jenkins Bridge VP I for nervous exhaustion and fatigue These utterances can only be put down as confessions of laxity Any observer knows that the California delegate credentials challenge put the McGovern forces under great strain in the final days leading to his nomination But it does not make sense that they did not detach one or two able men sift out vice presidential names and investigate with deliberate care the top choices It is a simple fact that the United States government does a vastly more thorough job of investigating the backgrounds of top and even middle echelon personnel for the federal bureaucracy Some key positions lie vacant literally for months while the checking agencies grind slowly through the records By contrast we seem generally to select men who might be asked to lead the nation with not much more care than some might use in picking a dinner companion On the afternoon of July 13 when he was chosen Thomas Eagleton was only a hazy figure emerging from the fog of a steam bath There can be no alibis such fuzzy choosing am erica ti same After Congressman James (Jimmy) Quillen decided to give up his seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives and run for Congress a young Rogersville lawyer was urged to run for Quillens seat This was in 1962 and Bill Jenkins gave in and ran for the office and was elected Although he had not planned on staying in the House too long he ran again and was re-elected and then his constituents sent him back to Nashville two more times It was his fourth term when he reached what had been considered an impossible goal for a Republican in Tennessee the House speakership But this young country lawyer did it the first Republican Speaker of the House in Tennessee in modern times Again his friends intervened now they were numbered all across the state and at their insistence he ran for the Republican nomination for governor in 1970 He came in third An unknown dentist from Memphis Winfield Dunn won the nomination and a Nashville industrialist Maxey Jarman was second A Republican first and a candidate second Jenkins forgot his defeat and went all out to help Dunn become the first Republican governor of Tennessee in 50 years His efforts were rewarded when Dunn appointed him Commissioner of Conservation and he went at that job with the same determination and ability he had shown in the legislature and as speaker And then came another honor President Nixon in looking around for someone to replace Frank Inner hi ossa i ie ic No way A glaring lesson of the Thomas Eagleton affair is that despite all pretense to the contrary we still dont pick our vice presidential nominee with the necessary great care and thought After John Kennedy was assassinated many shocked politicians in both parties were heard to say that this tragedy underscored the need to choose vice presidential prospects not for short-range political value but stricly on their qualifications for the White House Whereupon Sen Barry Goldwater in naming New York Rep William Miller as his running mate less than a year later seemed to offer in explanation only this: He gives Lyndon Johnson fits And Johnson himself picking Sen Hubert Humphrey was reported to be less concerned with Humphreys established talent and experience than with heavy pressures from the Democratic partys liberal wing Humphreys 1968 choice Sen Edmund Muskie came out of a typical pressure-cooker situation with the bleary-eyed presidential nominee and his bleary-eyed advisers hastily weighing prospects At in a Improve High way 11W! the other the positive order to bring all the boys home from Vietnam But it is assuming a great deal to think that the people at Hanoi will say Okay on these terms we will order all Americans released Suppose they say This is very fine but we would like a commitment that all your forces will leave all of Indo-China and we would like an explanation of your decison to keep a force in Thailand Naturally the new President would have to say We will certainly pull all troops out of all Indo-China but what arrangements we make with Thailand which is an independent country is none of your business And then what? Smith of Mississippi as a director of the Tennessee Valley Authority picked Jenkins The next step is for the Senate to confirm Jenkins appointment and no trouble is expected there and the Hawkins County farmboy will move into the prestigious office in Knoxville A skilled practical politician and a successful administrator Jenkins takes with him to the TVA position a deep and abiding love in his state and region and a dedication to continuing the uplift of the economy of the South He knows recreation a major function of the multi-purpose agency to which he has been nominated to be a director is a growing industry and one which can bolster the fortunes of the once destitute river valley which Congress recognized in 1933 when creating the TVA He believes he was nominated by the President because of his ties with conservation As chief of the states conservation department he has been a moderator between conservation groups and various industries While the two seem to have opposite goals Jenkins has sought to balance them in an effort to preserve and enhance Tennessees beauty and to promote conscientious use of its resources by miners lumbermen and others seeking to draw profits from the soil There is a very direct relationship between the farm background and the modern-day conservationist Jenkins says It is unfortunate that more people in urban areas never get an opportunity to participate in the activity of making land productive point to pick a the time Muskie seemed a wise selection But his faltering reponse to the demands of the 1972 campaign raised grave doubts President Nixon in 1968 did in fact take more time choosing He had sifted names for weeks and had actually chosen Spiro Agnew at least 10 days before the Republican convention at Miami Beach Yet curiously he felt it necessay to go through the accepted charade of appearing to choose his men by listening to volumes of last-minute advice Furthermore Nixons judgment was heavily political Agnew was seen as a bridge candidate nan with a northern urban background but bearing a conservative strain pleasing to the South The feeling that George Wallace could not make Agnew a target was not a small consideration So now we come to Eagleton another product of high-pressure haste culled from a list of 30 names The senator says he might have told Sen George McGovern of his medical history but that he did not have time to think on that hectic day McGoverns campaign manager Gary Hart says it took nearly a week to assemble all the details of all Eagleton record of hospitalization and treatment hob green the On the WASHINGTON Senator youll have to sit down the stewardess said She put both of her hands on George McGoverns waist and she left them there a moment too long He looked around at her with a tight quizzical expression on his face and she returned a long cool even smile Were hitting some bumpy weather she said still not letting go So McGovern a 16-ounce can of Budweiser in his hand his blue shii open at thenkapd Jfc yanked loose slid info an aisle seat on the United charter He was in his stocking feet The plane was on its way from Aberdeen where he had just spoken at a banquet to Minneapolis where it would stop for fuel before heading on to Washington Washington was where the Eagleton thing would be decided for good There would be enough time to speak of his vice-presidential running mate and what must be done But now it was time to have a beer and drape his legs over the side of the seat and talk quietly of other things Up front in the first class cabin Eleanor McGovern and the senators personal staff and his black dog Atticus were trying to get some sleep It had been a long day and before it was over the traveling campaign would have to for Oddly enough Father Time seems to take a very slow pace to young people who travel a fast pace and then speeds up to go at breakneck speed for old folks who are travelling a slow pace A lawyer truly has it made When he gets client who is not afraid To sue the government on any account While the legal fees mount and mount! Such people say they much prefer To pay a legal counseller Than to pay a single cent To the national government! It is reported that the odds on Senator McGovern beating Richard Nixon are not very good But what would the odds have been on him getting the nomination just a few months ago? give up our livelihood because the Democrats in Morristown want the business there? Our need for an adequately improved Highway 11-W is great 1-81 or no 1-81 we still need this road We stand to lose one company that has a payroll of over $3000000 that is probably the largest in Grainger County A good road here will help us get more industry so we can put the people to work and off welfare Mr Smith and Governor Dunn you have Dunn it I am asking the good people of Grainger County to go to the polls and vote against any and all of the officials of Rutledge Grainger County and the state who are not interested in improving Highway 11-W We are asking you to give us this road as you promised Broken promises is one reason we are losing a nation Do not think for one minute that I am one who doesnt believe in this great republic and free enterprise system that God has so richly blessed us with I love it I fought for it I would be the first in a volunteer army to go to Vietnam to bring back our boys in prison I wouldnt come back without them We want industry we want our place in commerce we want this road improved We are asking all voters in this great garden spot of the world the great state of Tennessee to join us PH Moore Bean Station Term opinions He votes you know So I dont know how important it is if people know who he personally favors I think the good reporters will probably bend over backward to be fair to the other guy if they think that theyre starting to favor One candidate You can have a personal feeling about a campaign and still be fair about covering it But wont the Guild endorsement just give added ammunition to President Nixon for the President to point at the press and say lobk you cant believe what they write theyre on record as favoring McGovern Nixon will be like that anyway no matter what the situation is McGovern said Hell have Agnew go after the major metropolitan media regardless of the endorsement thing You know thats going to happen The plane tossed through the night and ax had to happen someone started talking about Eagleton The easiness went away and the tape reoerders and note -pads came out People left their seats to get close to McGovern and hear what he had to say The mood was gone and within 10 minutes he undid the seat belt and walked up the aisle and into the front cabin He would be in Washington soon i To the Editor: I want to thank Highway Copmissioner Bob Smith for answering the letter I recently wrote Governor Winfield Dunn I realize that Governor Dunn is busy trying to get votes to elect a Republican ticket this fall but I fear the answer Mr Smith gave me regarding BLOODY HIGHWAY 11-W is going to boomarang in this state We well remember Governor Dunn (when he was looking for votes) promising to do all he could to improve BLOODY HIGHWAY 11-W This is where 1-81 should have been built and would have been built had it not been for the Democratic influence in Morristown Now Mr Smith states that he is deeply concerned about the loss of lives and that a recent study shows 80 per cent of the trucks and 50 per cent of the cars using this road will divert to 1-81 1 cannot agree with this study By the time 1-81 is completed the way East Tennessee is run around) the highway will be inadequate because of the increase in truck and car traffic It is also obvious that the trucking companies are going to dispatch their drivers on the nearest route because of the approximate 65 cents per mile cost The residents of Grainger County are not going to be pacified with the widening of a half dozen bridges that will not even take care of four lane traffic Are you proposing to tell us that we dont need a road that we ought to be fenced off in the backwoods that we should had come home the presidential nominee The feeling was not lost on McGovern and it was no wonder that he was not yet able to sleep So he talked of a number of things none of them really very important just a way of making it through the night The plane started to toss about in the air McGovern stood in the aisle bracing himself against the seat Senator the same stewardess called from the back of the plane You will have to on McGovern waved bade to her Its okay hejsaid Im not kidding she called back again Its really not safe The weathers really bad Youve just got to sit down and put your seat belt on He sat down and put the seat belt on Someone asked him about the endorsement given to him by the president of the Newspaper Guild It has bteome a natter of some controversy many newspaper reporters do not like being put in the position of being identified with favoring a particular candidate no matter who it is Oh I dont know I guess there are two sides to that one McGovern said I can understand both arguments But it seems to me that a reporter is like anyone else He has plane back to Washington touched down in five different cities McGovern though was still charged up from hearing the crowds call his name He did not feel like sleeping so he had come back through the curtains from the darkened front cabin and was wandering around the brightly-lit coach section where the reporters were drinking and laughing and smacking away at typewriters that kept threatening to slide off the tray tables South Dakota and the day of speeches and rallies and other campaigns He had stopped in Mitchell and Aberdeen places where he helped create the Democratic party in South Dakota places where people call him George because it would be awkward to say anything else He had come back with a chance to be President of the United States and everywhere you looked all day you could see it in the faces of die people: The wonder of how far he had made it from the days of traveling to church basements and hotel meeting rooms to address 15 people They had all started together in South Dakota all of these middle-aged Democratic politicians and now here they all were still in their home towns All except for Geogre McGovern who "Try to look at this as a kind of Income Redistribution PlonT'.