Crowds

From the White House last week, things looked pretty rosy.

There were, of course, serious problems to be thought about or dealt with. Warfare raged in Southeast Asia and the U.S. had a deep commitment there (see cover story}. It appeared that the U.S. Congress, despite lopsided Democratic majorities in both houses, might plow under a lot of the President's legislative programs before it went home. The nation's businessmen were still suspicious of the President as a result of his slashing attack on the steel industry. But despite these concerns, the prevailing mood inside the White House was a cheerful, almost exuberant confidence.

Cool Reaction. The President endured a few chilly breezes when he spoke at the annual convention of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington's Constitution Hall. His Administration, he said, was not antibusiness, not against profits.

"We want prosperity, and in the free enterprise system there can be no prosperity without profit. We want a growing economy, and there can be no growth without the investment that is inspired and financed by profit."

But the delegates remained wary. "He gave a nice speech." said one of them afterward, "but actions speak louder than words. Nothing he said here this morning erased his actions taken against the steel industry." The business community had cause for concern. Kennedy is not ideologically against business: he probably thinks he is all for it. But the fact is that as a millionaire's son with no experience in any calling but politics, the President has led an economically sheltered life--and he does not seem to understand business or businessmen very well. Businessmen across the country are repeating to each other the published report (now vigorously denied by the White House) that in the white-hot early hours of his clash with U.S. Steel Corp. over a rise in steel prices he said: "My father always told me that all businessmen were s.o.b.s. but I never believed it till now."

Warm Reception. Four days after his C. of C. appearance, the President planed down to New Orleans to make another speech, this time to boost his trade-expansion bill. The occasion was the dedication of a huge new $12.5 million wharf on the Mississippi River, a fitting symbol of international trade. In his talk, the President restated his essential argument for his bill: presidential authority to slash tariffs is required to keep the European Common Market open to U.S. exports. "In May of 1962," he said, "we stand at a great divide: we must trade or fade. We must either go backward or go forward."

What was striking about Kennedy's trip to New Orleans was not his speech, but the reception he got. Louisianians greeted him at the airport with waving flags and blaring bands. Some 200.000 including children out of school for the day lined the streets to cheer him as he passed by in the motorcade, and great numbers of them were still waiting on the sidewalks after he finished his speech, to cheer him again as he rode back toward the heart of town.

Crowds are a measure of political popularity, and Kennedy in his travels has certainly been getting the crowds. In Berkeley, Calif., last March, a Kennedy speech attracted at least 85.000 people to the University of California stadium. It is therefore obvious why Kennedy is so cheerful nowadays. He has the people with him--not necessarily with his plans and programs, but with him as a man and leader. And few politicians would ask for more.

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