THE ADMINISTRATION: TENUOUS BALANCE

FOR most of his young Administration, Richard Nixon has seemed the artful juggler, tossing up fragile plates of policy into mischievous air currents. War and inflation threaten to spoil the performance. A Democratic Congress stands ready to harass him. To those who elected him, there are promises to keep; from those who voted against him, there are conflicting demands. He has failed to improve his relations with black Americans, and he has been unable really to placate white Southerners who feel that the pace of integration is too quick. Many intellectuals and journalists anticipate the crash of crockery with glee.

Last week there could be heard in Washington, if not yet a crash, then at least an ominous clattering sound. Ironically, much of the noise came from Nixon's fellow Republicans. Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Robert Finch, who had taken a drubbing a week earlier in the Knowles affair, found himself forced to compromise his strong stand on school desegregation guidelines. That Nixon decision angered liberals of both parties and blacks, as did the Administration's introduction of a transparently weak voting-rights, proposal. An affirmative House vote on the income tax surcharge extension bill constituted the week's only victory, and even that presented problems.

Surtax Extension

Nixon's cautious conduct of the surtax fight paid off early in the week, when the House on a 210-to-205 vote approved the Administration's bill to continue the levy for a year and repeal the 7% business investment tax credit. The vote appeared closer than the issue actually was; G.O.P. leaders had been assured by many members that their votes were Nixon's if the measure actually faced defeat on the floor. Minority Whip Leslie Arends marched Republicans in from the cloakroom by ones and twos until he had enough votes to put the surtax over the top. One hundred and fifty-four Republicans supported the surtax. Only 56 Democrats went along with the Administration bill.

The victory was a qualified one, however. Nixon was required to do more last-minute, personal lobbying than he has done for any bill so far in his Administration, and he thus incurred obligations that he might later find burdensome. Nor is Senate approval of the tax extension by any means certain. A Senate majority probably cannot be collected unless comprehensive tax reform is coupled with the surtax. Nixon was compelled to promise support for a reform bill this year, but whether a combined bill acceptable to all factions in both houses and the Administration can be worked out quickly is another matter. The temporary extension of the surtax expires July 31.

Desegregation Guidelines

The President steered another wary course on the touchy issue of school-desegregation guidelines. Established by HEW, the guidelines required some Southern school districts that are still segregated to integrate by this fall, the rest by the fall of 1970. The possible punishment for non-compliance is the loss of federal financial assistance. For months, the guidelines had been the subject of an intense debate within the Administration. Conservatives, including Attorney General John Mitchell, favored giving Southern school districts more time to comply. Finch, smarting from his defeat in the Knowles affair, held out for no change.

Pressure also mounted from outside the Administration. The liberal Democratic Study Group urged strong presidential support for existing desegregation timetables. A group of 30 Negroes from four Southern states staged a sit-in demonstration in the Attorney General's office, refusing to leave until Mitchell met with them and asked them to "watch what we do instead of listening to what we say." Republicans who did both opposed any change in compliance schedules. Arkansas Governor Winthrop Rockefeller warned Nixon that any letup would "break faith with the black community" and betray officials in those districts that had already complied. G.O.P. Senate Whip Hugh Scott warned of a liberal revolt. Kentucky's Marlow Cook said weakening of the guidelines would be "morally indefensible."

The Administration's final decision was a thinly disguised--and less than successful--attempt to make everyone happy. Issued jointly by the HEW and Justice departments, the eleven-page statement sought to mollify the liberals and Negroes by pledging the Administration to the goal of full school integration across the nation--not merely in the South, where the principal enforcement effort has been concentrated until now. At the same time, the new policy will permit districts previously scheduled to comply this fall or next to delay further under certain circumstances. The burden of proving that additional delay is necessary would be on the local district. Although Finch denied that the pace of integration would be slowed, the inescapable fact remained that districts that have been avoiding integration for 15 years--since the 1954 Supreme Court school decision--now have an opportunity to seek additional delay. "Our aim," the statement said, "is to achieve full compliance with the law in a manner that provides the most progress with the least disruption and friction."

Whether that can be achieved remains to be seen. Hundreds of school districts, which include 22% of the black school population of the 17 Southern and Border states, are scheduled to desegregate this fall. Even their full compliance would raise to only 42% the proportion of black pupils attending integrated schools in those states. Roy Wilkins of the N.A.A.C.P. was the first black leader to speak out against the guideline changes. The Administration's decision, he said, "is almost enough to make you vomit." Senator Jacob Javits warned that the "softening could prove disastrous" and threatened to introduce legislation mandating the completion of desegregation by a given date.

Voting Rights

Javits' threat may be an empty one. Capitol Hill can do little about what is essentially an administrative decision. But Congress is likely to do something about the Administration's voting rights bill. The bill was introduced without prior consultation with congressional leaders, who had already indicated their intention to extend the Southern-focused Voting Rights Act of 1965 for another five years. It would strengthen the present law by barring voter-literacy tests nationwide, although in most states this is not an issue. At the same time, it would undermine the enforceability of the existing law in the South by eliminating the advance Justice Department review of new voting statutes required under the 1965 act. Regarded as a sop to white Southerners who have long opposed civil rights legislation aimed solely at their region, the measure has alienated not only Negroes but a number of important members of Nixon's own party. Ohio's William McCulloch, the House Judiciary Committee's senior Republican, expressed the depth of the disaffection when he said that the Administration proposal "creates a remedy for which there is no wrong and leaves grievous wrongs without adequate remedy."

Faced with such determined opposition, the Administration promptly retreated. Describing the differences over the .bill as "just a matter of tactics," House Minority Leader Gerald Ford let it be known that he would move for separate consideration of the Administration and Judiciary Committee proposals. That will virtually ensure passage of the committee bill.

Future Prospects

Viewed solely from Washington, the Administration's tactics appear to many to be thoroughly inept. Factions within the Executive wrangle too long and too publicly before decisions are made. There has been an inability to gauge congressional sentiment. Unless the Nixon voting rights bill, for example, was designed simply as a gesture to the South, with no serious expectation for replacement of the existing legislation, the Administration was misguided to introduce it in the face of predictable bipartisan opposition. On the other hand, whatever the motive, the Republicans can now say to the South that they tried. Indeed, Nixon manages to convey a sense of earnest effort on a number of issues. He is trying to end the war, to curb inflation, to attack organized crime, to tell off campus radicals and other disturbers of the peace.

Thus the view from the country beyond Washington is far more friendly. Last month's Gallup poll reports that 65% of the people approve of the way Nixon has conducted the presidency since taking office. The manner may not be dynamic, and embarrassing mistakes may outnumber the accomplishments so far, but it was F.D.R. who said that a good leader cannot afford to get too far ahead of his followers. That Rooseveltian dictum, at least, Nixon seems happy to accept.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.