Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 56

Chicago Tribune, Sunday, August 12, 1973 Perspective 8 2 Jom P. Roclte James Reston Stayskal i GATES M-H12 Someone offers answers at last Aides' tendency to play President 'J ANY BUROCRACY tends to accumulate a few characters who specialize as royal chamberlains. University presidents, business executives, and-f course political leaders always have a faithful "special assistant" or maybe several who tell him what a great man he is, listen to his complaints about the unkind world, and in general play therapist. I have nothing in general against these folks; indeed, a number of them like Jack Kennedy's buddy Dave Powers are great characters. But there is another specimen of the breed: the-friend and therapist who decides to go into business for himself, who, in President Johnson's phrase, "plays President." It is hard to keep an exact count, but a horseback guess suggests that President Nixon must have had on the order of 15 pseudo-Presidents.

Their function, as they defined it, was to "protect" the President, which in practice was to isolate him. WATCHING THIS hermetically sealed White House come apart has reminded me of an episode in the Johnson years. The facts are essentially correct, tho no names have been used in order to protect the guilty. It all -began when the President made a most intemperate speech in defense of his foreign policy. One of his top aides went from the speech to his office and wrote Johnson i a memo.

It was a blockbuster, suggest- ing courteously but starkly that the President would pick up 10 enemies for every friend with such tactics. It went into the night-reading pile. The next morning another aide, who was momentarily royal chamberlain, sidled into my colleague's let's call him office and, after a good bit thissing and thatting, indicated that President thought would make an excellent chairman of, say, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. observed that this seemed a bit odd: He hadn't heard a word on the subject from Johnson. The visitor said tltet, after that memo, it would be a miracle if even got a Christmas card.

11 picked up the phone, pushed "POTUS" President of the U. di-" rect line button, and shortly got the President. "Mr. President," he said, coldly, "if you want to fire me, that's 7 okay it's your government but don't send a messenger. Just tell me yourself and I'll be out of here in half an hour." 11 There was complete silence for a "-minute and then Johnson asked: "What in God's name makes you think I want' to fire you? I need you.

You're one of the few people around here that tells to me with the bark off." Wayne Stayskal's cartoons appear Monday thru Friday in Chicago Today. The contrast with President Nixon, who hasn't had a press conference during the Watergate crisis since last March 15, was unavoidable. So maybe something important is happening here, probably as a result of Watergate. Even at the top of the Nixon administration, officials are beginning to speak cut. The new attorney general, Elliot Richardson, didn't ask whether the Agnew "investigation" would embarrass the President or the Vice President, but simply advised Agnew that he was being investigated for possible criminal action.

Also, Richardson has instructed his colleagues in the Justice Department to keep a careful record of anybody, including members of Congress, who tries to influence decisions in the Department of Justice. This new reporting system, designed to remove the Justice Department from politics, will "discourage approaches" by persons with improper motives, Richardson said, and it is interesting that he added that "only news media representatives are excluded" from this new reporting system. THIS IS a change worth noting. It Is not only the Ervin committee and other members of Congress who are beginning to show a new independence, but that key members of the President's own executive family are beginning to act on what they believe to be their own official responsibilities, even if this embarrasses the White House. Vice President Agnew's press conference is only one important symbol of this change.

He has been a loyal member of the "Nixon team," and he went out of his way in his press conference to express again his conviction of the President's innocence in the Watergate disaster, but at the same time, he insisted on protecting his own integrity by facing the charges against him in public. And the reaction to this was startling. For even without knowing the facts in Agnew's case, the feeling after his press conference was very much in his favor in fact, that finally in this town somebody in power had talked up with candor and passion, and taken the risk of telling the truth. New York Time Newt Service James Reston's column appears regularly in Chicago Today. WASHINGTON What this town has been hoping for recently is somebody, anybody in power, who would stand up and give plain answers to hard questions, and Vice President Agnew has finally done it.

When the Justice Department informed him officially that he was being "investigated" for using his influence and taking bribes on government con-tarcts, he didn't duck for long behind legal barriers, but called a press conference and said it was a "damned lie." He didn't hide for weeks or months behind "executive privilege" or issue proclamations about his "legal rights." After a short but unfortunate delay, he saw the reality: The headlines in the newspapers made him look like a crook, so he came out fighting. THE COURTS will decide later whether there was any wrongdoing in this case. The only point here now is how a public official should react when there is even a suspicion of wrong-doing, and Agnew demonstrated how to do it. He didn't ask, but told the President, he was going to call a press conference at 3 o'clock the next afternoon. He didn't have a few "friends" in the press around to hear his story, but invited everybody, TV cameras and all.

He asked for the tough questions, and he get them. Had he ever taken any money from government contractors? No! Was there a problem about politicians and government contractors? Sure, he said, you would be "naive" if you didn't recog-' nize it. Had he ever been offered a bribe to use his influence in public office? Yes, once when he was too inexperienced to know what was happening, but it had nothing to do with this case. Had he thought of resigning or standing down while these charges were going thru the courts? Certainly not, he didn't believe he would be indicted. He was cautious about committing himself to appear before a grand jury or about handing over personal papers to the courts, not for personal reasons, but because this obviously raised constitutional questions.

But he insisted that he had nothing to hide, would make all relevant documents available at the appropriate time, and, while listening to legal counsel, would decide what to do himself. Between the lines i I Using the same technology that turns new white shirts into old white shirts, a Brooklyn laundry has achieved a breakthru that promises to create several tidy fortunes. The Pilgrim Laundry Inc. has discovered how to turn new, bright-blue jeans into old, faded-blue jeans. The significance of the discovery is that jeans sold for S6 to $9 a pair now can be sold for $20 a pair and up at such well-known New York City stores as Macy's, Gimbel's, and Abraham Strauss.

Already, Pilgrim has taken on a contract to recycle 480,000 new pairs of children's and misses' jeans into 480,000 thousands of old jeans. Unfortunately, old white shirts are still worthless. II I AS AND I reconstructed it we figured that Johnson had gone up to the bedroom with the royal chamber- lain, picked up Q's memo, and blown his stack a striking event resembling an earthquake. He had probably dis-' cussed Q's ancestors, said he was' doubtless "deserting to Bobby," and left the distinct impression that the sooner was out the building, the better. "I oughter put him on the FDIC or Civil i' Defense Director on Guam," would have been a plausible signoff line.

The royal chamberlain filed all this, away, checked and discovered there was an FDIC vacancy but that was covered, and then took off on mission to "protect" the President. But in those days there was no way to protect the President from talking to his staff; he answered the phone. Antique glass paperweights are beginning to look more like rock-solid investments than fragile bibelots. Twenty-one years ago, paperweight collecting reached a frenzied zenith only to be smashed to bits when Egypt's King Farouk left, the world's foremost collector, was toppled from his throne. Farouk immediately unleaded his collection of Baccarat, Clichy, and other prized paperweights and so glutted the market that the bottom fell out.

But now the tide has turned. Paperweights bought for as little as $1 in 1920 now sell for as much as $12,000. The values of choice items have climbed so rapidly that a world-record $16,320 paid for a Baccarat weight last October was eclipsed by the sale of a Clichy weight for $20,400 in April. King Features Syndicate John P. Roche's column appears regu lariy in umcago loaay.

Making of the President-1972 amy Roles of the parties withered away 1 4 1 ft7), consequences were completely unpredictable at the beginning of 1972. The Republican situation was worse the party was simply allowed to decay so completely that it played no role whatsoever as a national party in the national election of 1972. Both national parties as they presented themselves to the American people in 1972 had come, by no one's design, to reflect the wills and the personalities of two individual candidates. I I if 4 fit: z'-'iiimMM" is; 1 i 4 Safe Sis Lh fry. 4 1 Bf TV' fwf M-wti hi K4wsiy i 1 I if t' i -i ni Continued from page 1 values of humanity, and what the Great Society had tried to put into institutional practice had run out of vitality, at home as abroad.

There was, thus, a turning point, which had not yet reach a clarity of options. No country moves forward more by ideas than America. And one of the problems of 1972 was that the idea system had become clogged by its own excessive outpourings. AMERICA had not been born with a party system; the Founding Fathers had feared parties as the greatest possible danger to the republic system they envisioned. The party system had grown up in the first third of the 19th century as a way for people with common interests to band together to make power do what they wanted done.

But the parties now, as the dying postwar world bequeathed the unbelievably complicated problems of this age of passage, were unable to perform the functions for which people had once intended them. The transformation of the Democratic Party was a conscious one, altho its gleton affair. And, on the Republican side, something incomparably more disturbing the felony of Watergate. At the 'open level of dialog, where issues were presented to the American people, Richard Nixon won by the greatest margin of votes in American history. No trickery was necessary to ensure that victory, and the political indecencies of his lieutenants clouded his victory in a way that could obscure both its meaning and the will of the poeple who voted for him.

RARELY had two candidates given Americans sharper choices. There was no doubt that the American people had grown suspicious about all governmental power suspicious of what power could do, or undo, in their home cities; suspicious of its dictates to their communities in race relations; suspicious of its conscription of their sons to fight abroad; suspicious of its control over their purse and tax burdens. In this sense, Richard Nixon convinced the Americans, by more than three to two, that he could use power better than George McGovern. TOMORROW: The Eagleton affair, 1973, Theodore H. White Neither campaign represented more than what its candidate said, or wanted, or permitted.

The candidates' personal staffs were responsible not to what their parties stood for, but to what they thought their candidates stood for. Neither campaign represented more than what its candidate said, or wanted, or permitted. Thus there came about, on the Democratic side, the buffoonery of the Ea- George McGovern wipes his brow during a campaign speech. Kissinger at the White House. Action express perfect copy of the album that won't cost you a billion bucks.

Hand over blcs," by Alice Cooper, if only I could find one that doesn't skip out of the groove. I've bought three already and returned all of them because they're all defective. Can you find one that will stay firmly in the track? Rockin' Teeny, Chicago the county treasurer's office told us the Circuit Court will be mulling over the problem of how to repay the money for at least another month, and the repayment work won't begin until then. When the decision Is finally reached, you'll be notified, Q.In the 1880s a man in England made the first all-metal frame bicycle, fit Q. Could you do an old-timer a favor? I get in feuds sometimes with stcelworkcrs who claim that they aren't as well paid as some people think.

Being as how I worked for the Gary works of United States Steel back In 1936, when the work was hot and the hours long, I wonder how a beginning steclworkcr's pay compares now with then. Ex-Stcelworker, Chicago A. Back then, the pay for a beginner was $22.80 for a six-day week, compared with $145 for a five-day week now, U. S. Steel officials told us.

Adjusting the 1936 figure for inflation, it would be worth roughly $58 in today's money. Q. Call me a sucker if you must, because I'm one of those law-abiding folks who paid the personal property tax on my gas station. After handing out $11.95 for the hated levy for 1972, I realized that the tax was thrown out In court. How do I get my money back? Just a Taxpayer, Northwest Side A.

You lose again, Pathetic as It mny sound, you would have been better off to Ignore the tax. Individuals needn't pny personal property tax bills for 1971 and 1972, thanks to a recent Illinois Supremo Court decision. But that's small comfort to honest folks who, like you, paid anyway. Folks in this would have done the reporter a world of good so far as his soul is concerned, but we didn't trust his ability to count. Instead, we asked Moody Bible Institute for an answer.

The institute reports that "love" appears 132 times in the Old Testament and 177 times In the New Testament. These figures exclude such derivations as "lovedst," "lovely," "lover," "lovers," "loves," "lovest," "loveth," "loving," and "loving kindness," all of which also appear. Q. Can you get a big airline to show a little mercy on us old folks? Back In March, 1972, we bought three round-trip tickets to San Francisco on United Air Lines. As luck would have It, we only used two of them, and the third one got misplaced.

We couldn't find it until late In May. Well, when I called the airline, I was told, "Sorry, we only give ticket refunds for one year," That means we're out $219, Can you get United to flap Its friendly wings and have a heart? Retired In Palatine A. Diane King, United's consumer representative, heard our pica In your behalf. She sent a check for the full price of the ticket winging on Its way to you. Q.

I'd walk nearly a million miles for that album, "Billion Dollar Ba- you can do it, I'll take you for a ride. L. South Side A. There Is a high premium placed on original "high wheelers," as they are now considered valuable antiques, according to Schwinn Bicycle Co. officials.

Not only that, they are scarce as hen's teeth. However, we did find that Lowell E. Kennedy of State Rte. 18 West, Rte. 1, Defiance, Ohio 43512, and the High Step Bicycle Box 847, Milwaukee, Wis.

53201, produce modern versions of the old bicycles. You can write to either address for further information on how to acquire one, Oh by the way, forget the free ride. Heights make us queasy. Q. I'm supposed to give a speech to the ladles of our church regarding the Importance of love in our everyday lives.

In order to give the talk some theological credence, I'd like to throw out some figures, such as, how many times the word love Is mentioned in the Bible. Could you supply me with an answer? Mrs. B. Paris, 111. A.

It was suggested by a crusty member of our staff that, in order to help you out, a reporter should be assigned to read both the Old and New Testaments, and count the number of times the word love is used. Probubly i $6.50 and they'll hand you the disk. Q. As the result of an auto accident I had last April on Int. Hwy.

90 near York Road, I have been held responsl- ble by the state for damage to a light- pale. That's okay. I realize the damages were my fault, and I have Insur- ance. But when I found out that the Department of Transportation let out a contract to replace the light and polo at a cost of $1,016, my eyes bugged out. That Seems terrifically exorbitant.

Could you check it out for me? R. Elmhurst A. Actually, the polo and light cost only $406 the other $G10 was for labor. And road-building bigwigs said the estimate sent to you wasn't unrea-' sonable at all. forget," said a Transportation Department spokesman, "that it requires three men, working all day, to install the light and pole.

Then, according to union rules, another team must be hired to hook up the wiring." Action Express cuts red tape, answers questions, and solves problems. Write care The Chicago Trihimc, 5 Michigan Chicago 60611. Alice Cooper A. As far as we're concerned, Alice Cooper has been out of the groove all along. His weird on-stage antics include chopping up chickens, wrestling suakes, and affecting sexually morbid pul-ons.

The Beverly Record Novelty Shop, 11612 S. Western found you a i which came to be known as the "high wheeler." Can you find one for me? If.