Trying to Make Amends

By WALTER ISAACSON

Reagan extends a clumsy hand to women, blacks and the poor

To the strains of a John Philip Sousa march, Ronald Reagan jauntily mounted the podium in the Sheraton Washington hotel to say he was sorry. His audience, members of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women, had been scheduled to take a VIP tour of the White House the day before. But due to a snafu in scheduling, the East Room was already occupied (ironically enough, by a conference on government efficiency), and the group was turned away. Fully aware that his relatively low popularity among women could cost him in 1984, the President tried to defuse the situation with a bit of humor. Said he: "I happen to be one who believes that if it wasn't for women, us men would still be walking around in skin suits carrying clubs."

Thud. The 1,200 women greeted the remark with stony silence and a few muffled moans. "What did he really mean?" Polly Madenwald, the organization's U.S. president, whispered to the woman sitting next to her. The cave man reference, they concluded, reflected a Neanderthal outlook. "To me he seemed to be saying that the only reason we're here is to create families," said Madenwald, a Republican from Hillsboro, Ore. "It was patronizing and didn't address who we are. He was talking to a group of businesswomen from around the world."

Many of the women in the audience, of course, genuinely appreciated Reagan's visit, and they warmly applauded his promise to "do penance" by carefully reading a new study on discriminatory laws and regulations. "Contrary to news reports, we do not feel you faced a hostile audience," wired Maxine Hays, the organization's international president. But the gaffe, while far from egregious, was a telling illustration of the difficulties Reagan faces as he struggles to dispel the impression that he is a rich man's President who is insensitive to poor people, women and minorities. That was, in fact, precisely the effort that Reagan was making last week. He traveled to Atlanta to stress his commitment to civil rights and women's concerns before a convention of the American Bar Association, announced that a task force would study the problem of hunger in America, and increased the Government's distribution of surplus cheese and other foods to the needy.

The fairness and compassion issue is going to be a prime political problem for the President. Although his advisers concede that he has little hope of winning significant support among blacks, the poor, and women activists, they hope that Reagan can at least reassure moderate women, middle-class whites and others concerned about civil rights and social justice. But Reagan's handling of the issues last week was often clumsy, and did little to mollify his critics. As one of his top aides lamented, "We took two steps forward and three steps backward."

"We are committed to eliminating all traces of discrimination in the law against women," Reagan told some 4,000 members of the bar association. He then ticked off his Administration's accomplishments in the area: reducing the income tax penalty for married couples, increasing child care tax credits for working mothers, eliminating the estate tax for surviving spouses, authorizing larger I.R.A. contributions for working women. In addition, Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver has been regularly meeting with Republican Congresswomen. Last Wednesday, the White House agreed to support key changes in pension rules that will make it easier for women, who often leave and re-enter the job market while raising families, to protect their benefits. One of the participants, Claudine Schneider of Rhode Island, said she was "excited" by the progress. But she was upset about a leaked legal brief in which the Justice Department contends that a small Pennsylvania college should be allowed to receive federal student aid funds even though some of its programs discriminate against women. "I feel like I'm running a ten-mile race and somebody moved the finish line," she said.

Some White House aides are beginning to believe that the problem with women is perhaps not as bad as it seems. While Reagan's support among women is 10% to 12% less than it is among men, about half of this "gender gap" is due to Reagan's disproportionate popularity with men, according to new White House surveys. Aides assume that 2% of the gap stems from higher Democratic registration among women, leaving only 3% or 4% that can be identified as women specifically dissatisfied with Reagan. Worries one woman staffer in the White House: "All they need to see is that it is less of a political problem and back it goes to the back burner."

In his speech before the bar association, Reagan also tried to improve his image among blacks. He labeled as "hogwash" the charge that he is tampering with the traditional independence of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights by attempting to replace three liberal members with his own appointees. He took credit for proposing amendments to strengthen the Fair Housing Act and for signing in June 1982 the longest extension ever of the Voting Rights Act. "That's the height of fraud," snapped Joaquin Avila of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "His Administration was at the forefront of seeking to dilute the Voting Rights Act." Critics also noted that Reagan did not mention his lackluster record in naming blacks to positions of responsibility in his Administration.

Even in attempting to address the hunger problem, Reagan ran into criticism. In a memo to Counsellor Edwin Meese, he noted that he was "perplexed" by accounts that people in the country were going hungry and asked for a "task force to bring me a no-holds-barred study" of the problem. Meese commented sanguinely: "It may turn out to be all a figment of TV's imagination." The panel is expected to be chaired by the dean of U.C.L.A.'s Graduate School of Management, J. Clayburn La Force. Complained Martha Ballou, who coordinated Minnesota's Task Force on Emergency Food and Shelter: "I don't know why the Reagan Administration is so perplexed about the extent of hunger when they have created most of it themselves with the cutbacks in the food-stamp program."

Secretary of Agriculture John Block sought to defend the current level of food stamp funding by showing that a family of four could subsist on a $58 allowance for a week. Surrounded by a flock of aides and reporters, he and his wife pushed a cart through their local supermarket picking up provisions recommended by nutritional experts. The millionaire farmer reported that there were only a few minor hitches in living on this allotment for a week: "The family crisis was when the dog ate the biscuits. But that could happen to any family, rich or poor." Critics countered that tighter eligibility rules instituted by Block mean that the average family of four on food stamps receives only $39 a week, rather than the maximum figure used by Block. The Administration has proposed cutting the funding even more for fiscal 1984. While Block was playing poor, a demonstration that seemed more patronizing than constructive, the House approved 408 to 15 a resolution recommending against any further cuts in food stamp or nutrition programs for at least a year.

Reagan also tried to make the most of symbolic gestures. With great public flourishes he issued proclamations declaring Aug. 26 as Women's Equality Day and the month of August as National Child Support Enforcement Month. Stressing an issue that has been of concern to women's groups, he said, "It's a shocking fact that over half of all women who receive child support orders receive less than what they're due." Faced with inevitable congressional passage of a bill to make Martin Luther King's birthday a national holiday, Reagan swallowed his longstanding objections that this would open the door to many other groups seeking similar holidays and decided that he would support the measure.

One substantive step the Administration took last week was to increase the amount of surplus foods that will be distributed free from the Government's stockpiles. The program to give away cheese had been cut back from a peak of 60 million tons per month to about 30 million tons because of pressure from manufacturers who said it was hurting sales. The amount will now rise to 40 million tons. More butter, powdered milk, corn meal and honey will also be released from federal storage. In addition, the White House is withdrawing its opposition to a bill to provide $50 million next year to help states distribute the food.

The Administration also made an effort to protect the voting rights of blacks last week. It sent 322 federal observers and 16 lawyers to Mississippi to oversee primary elections there. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader from Chicago who is considering a race for the presidency, earlier had helped lead a registration drive in that state and had persuaded Assistant Attorney General William Bradford Reynolds to go see for himself the need for more vigorous enforcement of the voting rights laws.

Although Reagan is trying to deal with the political ramifications of the fairness issue, critics feel he has not yet shown a true sensitivity to the needs of minorities and women. "While the President's words are soft as a lamb, his programs bite like a wolf," says Joseph Lowery, head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. And a woman in the Administration says, "The President's generation just doesn't understand working women. The men in the White House still think that the appointment of Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court solves all the women's problems." The larger challenge, which the White House is only beginning to grasp, is the need to ensure that all citizens are full partners in the society.

--By Walter Isaacson.

Reported by Douglas Brew and Anne Constable/ Washington

With reporting by Douglas Brew, Anne Constable This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.