Birth-Control Aid

Vice President Richard Nixon checked his tight Washington schedule one afternoon last week, found he had time to drop by the Roosevelt Hotel for the Associated Church Press convention. He delivered no formal talk, instead let the 100-odd Protestant church-paper editors raise any questions on their minds.

They were mainly worried about the recent flare-up of religion-in-politics issues. Answering one editor's question, Nixon deplored the fact that Democrat Jack Kennedy's Catholicism had been injected as an issue into the Wisconsin primary.

Asked about President Eisenhower's December decision never to spend U.S. foreign aid funds for birth-control programs abroad, Nixon agreed that U.S. funds should not be used to promote birth control -- or any other pet notions abroad.

But if foreign governments "reach a decision that they want to limit population growth at a certain point and come to us for assistance," said he, "we should give it to them." The editors cheered the birth-control statement. Then, after an hour of Nixon's informal tour among the issues, they sent him on with a burst of applause.

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