B. CIVIL RIGHTS

C. EAST-WEST TRADE

E. IMMIGRATION

Percent

Yes

No

56

No opinion

56

26

2488

36

36

33

39

28

EXTENSION OF REMARKS

OF

HON. B. F. SISK

OF CALIFORNIA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Friday, April 10, 1964

Mr. SISK. Mr. Speaker, the Federal urban renewal program is much in the news these days, and more and more will this be true as time for debate on the Housing Act of 1964 approaches.

In my hometown of Fresno, the urban renewal program gives every indication of being an outstanding success. Time and again it has been said that the successful renewal program is the one that has the backing of all facets of community life the local citizen groups, the business groups, such as the local chamber of commerce, and the news media. Fresno today is proof of this.

There are four urban renewal projects in Fresno now under contract, involving the redevelopment and renewal of some 290 acres of land. The Federal Government, through the URA, has allocated or reserved over $20 million for these projects, two of which are in the

The Federal contribution will be matched many times over by the local investment in the four areas.

An $8 million complex has already been completed in one of the project areas, with more to come in the same area, including a mall, a new Federal building, a county courthouse, and a convention center.

Fresnans are particularly proud of their downtown renewal project, and in this connection, I would like to call attention to the following articles from the Fresno Bee of March 7 and March 10, 1964:

[From the Fresno Bee, Mar. 7, 1964] WEBB OPENING POINTS TO BIG FRESNO FUTURE (By H. L. Sisson)

A Fresno native and his home city drew several rounds of praise and applause today as the new 22-story Del Webb Towne House and Fresno Center was opened.

In ribbon-cutting ceremonies at the Tulare Street entrance to the sunken plaza a future was

glowing picture of Fresno's painted by Lt. Gov. Glenn M. Anderson,

Federal Commissioner of Urban Renewal William L. Slayton, Mayor Wallace Henderson, and Edgardo Contini, a senior partner in Victor Gruen & Associates, the firm designing the Fulton Street Mall.

Webb, a native Fresnan and corporate

owner of many major developments, was assisted in the ribbon cutting by Anderson and Mayor Henderson.

THIRTY-UNIT PARADE

The ceremonies followed a parade with 30 units through the downtown area to the front of the building.

While Webb and his $8 million project were in the spotlight, the impact upon the total community and its future were not overlooked.

Webb emphasized during a press conference that the corporation's selection of Fresno for the venture was based upon extensive research which indicated a healthy future. He noted that the facility already has bookings for activities through 1966. "Fresno has a need," he said.

Later he said the corporation will also keep its eye on Fresno for future project opportunities.

"If there is an opportunity we will be here building it," Webb said.

POINTS TO GROWTH

Anderson pointed to statewide growth and urban renewal programs in "anticipation of our growth from our current population of 171⁄2 million to 30 million persons" by 1980. He cited Fresno's interest in development and urban renewal as a statewide example.

Contini termed Fresno's interest in growth such as Webb's project and urban renewal as unique.

"Fresno has always viewed urban renewal as a catalytic function and has had the real spirit from the start. It has expanded its program with the support of government and business, all based upon • * the problem of revitalizing the central area. What is more important, it is not just a paper plan. It works."

FUTURE IMPACT

Mayor Henderson covered the future impact of the Webb project with 225 employees, new conventions coming in, and the corporation offices here. He also cited the future impact of the Fulton Street Mall and the Fresno convention center.

"I would estimate that $200 million in new money will be spent in Fresno in the next 5 years," Henderson said.

The mayor also briefly reviewed the various urban renewal projects under way and emphasized that future projects are being considered.

"But right now," he said, "we have our hands full."

In a speech to members of the Fresno County and City Chamber of Commerce at noon today, Slayton called Fresno "an excellent model of renewal."

Fresno, he said, "indeed has put its money where its mouth is" in implementing the Fresno plan to revitalize the downtown district.

PLUNGED INTO ACTION

"Planning has been plunged into the action field," Slayton said. "We now have a vehicle, urban renewal, to carry out the plans that heretofore were but hopes and dreams. And since the action vehicle is at hand, we have to put up or shut up.

"We can no longer just talk in pious terms of the city and what we want it to be. We must decide specifically what is to be done this year, and next year, and the year after, to make sure our cities are rebuilt as we want them to be.

"There is an old saying, and a true one; money talks, in short, we have to put our money where our mouth is.

"When I was apprised the other day of the generous financial contributions that Fresno businessmen had made through your Downtown Association and mall assessment district, I realized that Fresno, indeed, has put its money where its mouth is."

Slayton urged Fresno to continue pressing its downtown redevelopment program.

GOOD DESIGN

"You have a good design here in the Fresno plan. Make sure that you follow it, that you do not allow yourselves to be detoured by the siren songs of quick profit or ephemeral savings.

"What you are building here in the central business district is going to last a long, long time. Let us make sure that our children and our children's children will be able to enjoy the fruits of our investment in dollars, energy, ingenuity and effort."

Slayton called the Fresno plan "exciting" and "one of the most ambitious, imaginative plans for central business district development that I have yet seen," and a tribute to business leaders, government and citizens who have supported it.

In a press conference this morning. Slayton said Fresno's mall treatment of the downtown district "is a first" in urban renewal nationally.

He predicted the project, which will go into construction March 30, "will encourage other cities to do the same thing."

Master of ceremonies for the ribbon cutting was Chamber of Commerce President Richard Worrel. Also on the speakers' platform were Fresno Assemblyman George N. Zenovich, Sloan P. McCormick, chairman of the board of supervisors, Mrs. Webb, and the owners of the property on which the new Webb building complex is located, Milo E. Rowell, Paul R. Bartlett, and Mrs. Elizabeth Farrar.

The building will be open to the public for tours tomorrow from noon to 9 p.m.

[From the Fresno Bee, Mar. 10, 1964] ROAD BACK LIES OPEN FOR DOWNTOWN FRESNO Fresno's downtown plan is no longer a paper plan and the voices of the cynics are getting fainter.

The physical evidence abounds. Even the complacent pigeons are fluttering uneasily in the architectural furbelows and gingerbread at 1920-22 Mariposa Street. The other examples along Mariposa of the uniquely ugly building style sometimes called carpenters' Gothic are being loaded into trucks by the wrecker's clamshell and 1920-22 is waiting its turn.

Work on the Fulton Street pedestrian mall will start in about 3 weeks.

Soon to come-a new Federal building, county courthouse, and convention center. And the 22-story Del Webb Center, the first high-rise building to be built here in 38 years, opens as a symbol of the millions of dollars of private investment which has been and will be generated by the downtown plan and its underpinning, the central business district redevelopment project.

All this began as an act of faith by the city, the Federal Government and the downtown association that the city's declining central core could be resuscitated.

The catalyst was urban renewal-the willingness of the public agencies to put an estimated $31 million into redevelopment (almost $13 million will come back from the sale of improved land).

The private sector has responded and will continue to respond and this is not an act of faith but a cool, conservative estimate of Fresno's future needs.

In the words of William L. Slayton, the Federal Commissioner of Urban Renewal, Fresno has "put its money where its mouth is" and has produced "one of the most ambitions, imaginative plans for central business district development that I have yet seen."

The upward spiral, then, would seem to be irreversible. But Slayton had something else to say which bears reemphasis. In the heady atmosphere which is enveloping the downtown project the city should make sure it does not bend the plan out of shape in response to what Slayton called "the siren

songs of quick profit or ephemeral savings." It is perhaps no exaggeration to say this is a once in a century opportunity. The planners and the architects must continue to play as important a role as the investors and the economic analysts.

Idaho Statesman Newspaper Opposes John Birch Society

EXTENSION OF REMARKS

OF

HON. RALPH R. HARDING

OF IDAHO

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Friday, April 10, 1964

Mr. HARDING. Mr. Speaker, since 1961, I have been opposing the extremism of the John Birch Society in Idaho. My congressional mail has revealed a great amount of John Birch Society activity and an increasing number of converts.

However, my attempts to warn Idahoans of this extremist group had been ridiculed by the editorial and political writers of Idaho's largest paper until Wednesday, April 1.

As late as March 9, the Idaho Evening Statesman carried the following reprinted editorial insinuating that my great concern about the Birch Society must be for California or some other State as Idaho did not have any John Birch activity.

GOODING LEADER

[From the Boise (Idaho) Evening Statesman, Mar. 9, 1964]

Congressman RALPH HARDING, Democrat, of Idaho, is hitting the headlines regularly with his attacks on members of the John Birch Society.

In places where there are John Birch Society members they are chiefly notable for the extreme political philosophies of their members. For this reason there are not many of them. Their activities where they do exist are limited to telegrams, telephone calls, presence of pickets at State capitols, news releases.

In California, for instance, the members of the society are very vocal and have had influence in certain elections. In this one State, at least, the John Birch Society conducts well organized campaigns to influence the legislature, with letters, telegrams, pickets, meetings, news accounts, speakers.

In contrast here in Idaho we have never seen a newspaper story of a meeting, heard a local speaker on radio or television, been invited to a meeting, etc.

It is a fact that the great majority of Americans are moderate in political philosophies, either Democrat or Republican. Of these a large segment votes independently of political party, choosing to aline behind a candidate, particularly in the presidential elections.

Have you ever met a member of the John Birch Society? Have you ever been contacted to join the John Birch Society?

Congressman RALPH HARDING'S great concern must be for California or some other State-not Idaho.

The paper chose to ignore the fact that Robert Welch, Tom Anderson, Reed Benson, John Rousselot, and Billy James Hargis have headlined a list of Birch speakers into that section of Idaho in which the Idaho Statesman is circulated.

I am informed that the so-called Reverends McIntyre and Schwartz are next on the extremists' circuit into Idaho.

In addition, we have been subjected to the rantings and ravings of Dean Manion and Dan Smoot via radio and newsletter.

I was, therefore, relieved when on Wednesday, April 1, in a reversal of the complacency of their earlier reprinted editorial, the Idaho Statesman finally came out in opposition to the John Birch Society with the following editorial which I consider outstanding and helpful, even though months late.

[From the Idaho Statesman, Apr. 1, 1964] THE EXTREMISTS SPEAK

Nothing should give the Communists more happy thoughts these days than to be headlined as the chief promoters of the civil rights bill, now before the Senate.

A spokesman for the John Birch Society in Boise Monday night declared that the "rights" bill is a "Red tool" and that the act heads the Communists' agenda to promote "this strife."

Americans might answer to this alarmist organization that the U.S. Senate is perfectly capable of debating the controversial issues

of the Civil Rights Act without being alarmed that each paragraph or subsection points to the rise of communism. If anything in the past 2 years has given a lift to the extreme leftwing in American politics it probably has been the John Birchers. If any organization is bent upon creating civil strife,

suspicion in the minds of citizens, turmoil in the legislative halls, the John Birchers could be the major promoters-but they have minimized their influence by preoccupation with extremism. From them, the Communists should take lessons.

The Civil Rights Act may be good or may be bad. But that is what the taxpayers pay their legislators in Washington, D.C. to figure out. Whether the minority is going to rule the majority by passage of the Civil Rights Act is not foreseen. But that the public is expected to renounce the act because it is alleged as a tool of the Reds is a ridiculous request of the John Birchers.

The rights bill concerns mainly the desires of a group of Negro leaders. Even though the bill is passed there is no certainty that all will be well. Court tests are in the offing. Public acceptance of some of the bill's proposals is doubtful. There can be strife.

But, nevertheless, this is a Republic and Congress is charged with the issuance of laws through a representative legislative process. And whether we like civil rights, Congress, the Supreme Court or not, the American public is not going to cower before the idiotic assumptions of the Birch society.

The avowed purpose of any group to fight communism within the United States is laudable, but only when the fight waged is honest and judiciously waged. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the responsible, trained agency in this country to so wage the fight-not the John Birch Society, which sees a Communist under "every bed" of political activity in our realm, which splits religious groups, which divideds good citizens those who agree with Birchism and those who do not, with the later tabbed as "pinko" or "Red."

Idahoans have a past of being fiercely independent and honest in their political thinking. The pioneers who built this State in the last century spoke bluntly and candidly. But can state historians look into the past annals and find a group of solid, respected citizens so captivated by such an organization as the John Birch group?

The founder of the John Birch Society gained prominence when he accused former

President Eisenhower of being a "dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy" and "the chances are very strong that Milton Eisenhower is actually Dwight Eisenhower's superior boss within the Communist Party."

The late President Kennedy declared that the society was totally alien to both the Democratic and Republican parties and noted that Mr. Eisenhower had been as vigorous in his denunciations of the John Birch Society as was he, Mr. Kennedy.

Vice President Richard Nixon said neither party could afford candidates who sought the support of such organizations as the Birch Society.

"The United States needs good, strong antiCommunists," Nixon said, "but those who accept or seek support from the John Birch Society are not serving America."

This is a free country in which all may speak or preach. Let that freedom remain without being subverted by the extremists, whether in the Communist ranks or on the rolls of the Birchers.

As evidence of the error of the Statesman's complacent attitude suggested in their reprinted editorial of March 9 that Idaho does not have any John Birch activity, one only needs to read the readers' reaction to their editorial of April 1. Following are letters contained in the "Letters to the Editor" section of the Sunday Statesman of April 5:

[From the Idaho Statesman, Apr. 5, 1964] ARTICLE DECLARED EXTREMELY UNFAIR EDITOR, THE STATESMAN:

With all due respect to the press, I feel a few comments would be in order concerning your editorial of April 1, 1964, concerning the John Birch Society.

I have followed this group with great interest over the last 2 years. My aunt is a very hard worker in this organization in California and she has sent a great deal of reading material to me during that time, some of which I have agreed with and some of which I have not.

Anyone who would deny that the Communists are involved in the Negro situation in this country would be a fool. It would seem to me that the Communists would be fools not to get into the civil rights battle. They have always supported any legislation in this country that would provide more Federal control, and I imagine they always will as long as they are allowed to get by with it. They would be fools if they didn't. And fools they are not. I have in my possession a copy of "The People's World" which is the west coast Communist newspaper and it goes into detail about the civil rights bill. They have told us in this that they are involved in it and when they themselves tell us this, we can hardly deny it.

I think your article was extremely unfair. I have lived in Idaho most of my life and have read the Statesman over the years, and have not always agreed with them but never have I found them to be unfair until now. The article was very much exaggerated and really when people call the Birchers "hatemongers" it might be wise to clean out their own closets a bit. The liberals and the Communists and the Socialists have attacked our society with more hate than the JBS could come up with in a 100 years. This article in my opinion was extreme and very slanted and really stretching way out. One can make anything look bad if one is a clever writer and can work hard enough at it.

I am not so concerned about the actual Communists in this country as I am about our liberals that have been brainwashed into carrying out the Communist Party line. These people are honest Americans in most cases. I am sure, but as our Saviour said:

"God forgive them for they know not what they do." If everyone would read a book, of which there are many, about the Communist menace in this country I am sure they would realize that the liberals are carrying

out the wishes of the Communists and they don't even know it. "God forgive them for they know not what they do." JEANNE DOUGLAS.

BOISE.

[From the Idaho Statesman, Apr. 5, 1964] EDITORIAL BRINGS READER COMPLAINT EDITOR, THE STATESMAN:

Until Wednesday's Statesman arrived I have had little complaint about the Statesman, but that morning's editorial, "The Extremists Speak," should be retitled "The Extremist Speaks."

The news articles of Tuesday stated that the statements of the Birch speaker were supported by frequent documentation. Would it not have been more responsible editorial writing to have attacked the document sources as being false, illogical, or unworthy than use statements such as "alarmist organization," "ridiculous request," "idiotic assumptions," "subverted by extremists," and several longer ones?

The editorial used quotes also, but quoted the opinions of the people that the Birchers have challenged to prove that the Birchers were guilty or poor judgment. This is similar to proving that the Statesman in a bad newspaper by quoting the people that dislike the firm.

Since the editorial was written on April 1, maybe the typesetter forgot to add the last line which said, "April Fool."

I for one hope that the Statesman will continue to live up to the qualities in the word "Statesman" as it has in the past. DON E. HAASCH.

BOISE.

[From the Idaho Statesman, Apr. 5, 1964] EDITORIAL DOESN'T QUITE MAKE SENSE EDITOR, THE STATESMAN:

Your editorial on "The Extremists Speak" (April 1) didn't make sense after hearing the well-documented talk on the civil rights bill by the Honorable Mr. John Rousselot.

Talks which I have heard by refugees from enslaved countries, as well as talks given by ex-FBI agents on the same subject, corroborate what Mr. Rousselot said about the civil right's bill's being used as a tool by the Communist conspiracy to divide and conquer us. You referred to the FBI yourself as an authority, and Mr. Rousselot quoted J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, in the documentation which he gave.

In J. Edgar Hoover's book, "Masters of Deceit," there is a whole chapter written on communism and minorities. Here is a quote from page 250 by a Negro who had gone to Russia to attend the Lenin School: "I found that Negroes were special objects of political exploitation. The sacrifices and dirty work planned for the American Negro Communists as spearheads for communizing the United States made it obvious that we were considered only as pawns in a game where others would get the prize."

It has always been the traditional right of a free people to question the acts of those whom they elect to office, for just being elected to office doesn't insure that the mantle of righteousness is going to fall upon the occupant. I hope that what you said in your editorial does not mean that you want that right taken away.

Contrary to what you said in your editorial about the members of the John Birch Society looking under beds for Communists, they are looking for them in places they have said they would infiltrate-the Government, civic organizations, minority groups, etc.

BOISE.

MARY JANE ROOT.

[From the Idaho Statesman, Apr. 5, 1964]

FORTHRIGHTNESS SEEN IN EDITORIAL

As one who has frequently criticized the late and applaud the forthright editorial in Statesman editorial page, I want to congratuyour Wednesday, April 1, 1964, morning edition. This editorial, entitled "The Extremists Speak," which denounced the John Birch Society, certainly deserves the praise of all of your readers.

Your stand against the emotionalism and fanaticism of the Birch Society should be the signal for all those who agree that such an approach to the problems confronting the United States is destructive of our responsible political party system to join you in publicly denouncing the society. BYRON J. JOHNSON.

[From the Idaho Statesman, Apr. 5, 1964] OLD-FASHIONED PATRIOTISM LIKED

EDITOR, THE STATESMAN:

I read that the John Birch Society has sent another messenger to Boise-and wonders of wonders-he tells us that the Communists are going to give our minorities their civil liberties. The society has explained another issue and made another decision for us. It now appears that if one is to be anti-Communist he should do "all within his power" to defeat the civil rights bill. This puts me in a quandary because I want every American to have his constitutional rights. Does this make me a Communist or comsymp?

In fairness to Mr. Rousselot, I will say that there are portions of the present bill that may exceed the definition of a civil right. If this is true, Congress or the courts will surely correct them. The society evidently fears that our legislative and judicial processes are either unworkable or Communist controlled. Does this indicate that they advocate another form of government? It is difficult to legislate morality (to subjugate a religious or racial group is immoral in my opinion) but America has waited too long in seeing that all her citizens obtain their civil rights.

The John Birch Society seems to have brought forth a new breed of "super-patriots." I submit that old-fashioned American patriotism is quite sufficient. We must retain the right of freedom of thought and speech. We must defend this right one for another. We must gain for all our citizenry their precious inalienable rights. These and the rest of our heritage can be obtained and protected through basic democratic

[From the Idaho Statesman, Apr. 5, 1964] LOGIC OF BIRCHERS DRAWS CRITICISM EDITOR, THE STATESMAN:

Thank you for your editorial, "The Extremists Speak," on April 1. You have done a real service in pointing out the idiotic assumptions of the John Birch Society which "sees a Communist under every bed." Their logic on the civil rights bill seems to be: "We don't like this bill. Since we are the only true Americans, the bill must be anti-American; the Communists are anti-American, so they must be behind the civil rights bill."

Last year when Robert Welch spoke in Boise, he blamed the Communists (or gave them credit) for the election of Roosevelt in 1940 and the defeat of Taft at the Republican convention in 1952. Now his society believes the Communists were able to dupe the House of Representatives (which has passed the civil rights bill) and the large number of Senators who favor the bill.

Apparently the Birchers have no faith in democracy; they believe that the democratic process has failed in the aforementioned Republican convention, the last several national elections, and in the majority of the congressional elections.

They believe that the Communists are strong enough (with a few thousand party members) to sway the opinions of college presidents, ministers and church leaders, political parties, the voting public: In fact, everyone but the Birchers themselves.

Thank God the American people have more faith in democracy, and give less credence to the power of the Communists, than this unhappy society does. I dare to believe that not only Negro Americans, but a majority of white citizens, will rejoice when this bill to remove some of the racial barriers to democracy is passed.

BOISE.

PAUL V. LArue.

[From the Idaho Statesman, Apr. 5, 1964] MEN ENTANGLED BY THEIR TONGUES EDITOR, THE STATESMAN:

A resounding three cheers to the editorial in last Wednesday's a.m. edition regarding the John Birch Society. It's true that birds are entangled by their feet and men by their tongues, for the Birch bunch have proved it.

NELLIE DAWSON, Weiser.

Even though the majority of Idahoans who wrote the editor on this subject supported the Statesman in its editorial against the Birchers, one only has to read the opposition letters to realize that it is not just California that has a problem with the hysteria and the extremism of the John Birch Society.

I am, however, gratified that in spite of the John Birch Society's letterwriting instructions we had a 5-to-3 margin in letters opposing the John Birch Society and what it stands for.

The Presidential Passing

EXTENSION OF REMARKS

OF

HON. J. J. PICKLE

OF TEXAS

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Friday, April 10, 1964

Mr. PICKLE. Mr. Speaker, countless items have been written about the death of President Kennedy, but one of the most meaningful I have read is a poem by Dr. Bernard G. Jackson, of Round

Rock, Tex. Under permission granted,
I include it in the Appendix of the
RECORD:

THE PRESIDENTIAL PASSING
(By Bernard G. Jackson, D.D.S.)
We mourn the Presidential passing!
From aching hearts keep asking
Why did he have to go?
Must crime and evil ever triumph so?

The reeling nation staggers;
Its heart-beat briefly laggers!
The brilliant future dimming
By senseless, hateful killing!
The ship of state is steadied,
For coming conflict readied-
To lead the nation to the right,
The Charter points us to The Light!
Engrave on every heart as well,
What every little coin can tell:
To every citizen a must-

The only hope: "In God We Trust."
Lament the Presidential passing!
Resolve to keep on asking
God's help: Our strategy
For Triumph out of tragedy.

James K. Polk: The President Who Extended Our Borders to the PacificPart II

EXTENSION OF REMARKS

OF

HON. JOE L. EVINS

OF TENNESSEE

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Friday, April 10, 1964

Mr. EVINS. Mr. Speaker, the driving force that made James Knox Polk, of Tennessee, a great American President was "the conviction that he had to serve the little man and to pave the way for the growth of the Nation."

This insight into the sources of his strength is given in the second and concluding part of Louise Davis' article on "The President We Have Forgotten," which is being reprinted in the Appendix of the RECORD under unanimous consent.

Miss Davis points out that earlier estimates of Polk as a proslavery President were far from the historical facts.

His drive to stretch the Nation to the Pacific had nothing to do with extending slave territory

She writes:

It was a determined drive to get America's hands firmly on Pacific ports, particularly San Francisco.

The text of the concluding installment of this article on President Polk's administration follows: [From the Nashville Tennessean, Mar. 29,

1964]

THE DARK HORSE MAKES HIS PLAY

(By Louise Davis)

The fan that Sarah Polk fluttered against her blue velvet gown at the inaugural ball had miniature portraits of all 11 Presidents on it the newest, her husband, James K. Polk.

It was Polk's special gift to his wife to commemorate the day she became First Lady of the Land-one of his few lapses into sentimentality. She carried it to the inauguration ceremonies in the drenching rain that March 4, 1845.

They rushed from the wet procession to the White House for the formal dinner the 49year-old President and his wife were giving that night.

That was the beginning.

Four years later, when the California gold rush sent ships and wagons racing west, some Americans remembered it was President Polk who had acquired that land-from Mexico to Canada, from the Rockies to the Pacificfor the United States.

One of their toasts ran: "To George Washington, who did more than any other man to establish our country; to James K. Polk, who did more than any other man to enlarge it."

But in the century between the gold rush and the atomic bomb, Polk's memory was almost blotted off the history books.

The long sleep of Polk's fame came largely because northern historians mistakenly imagined that the southern President's motives in expanding the Nation was to extend slavery.

as

But when the passions of the Civil War had cooled and historians investigated Polk's diary and correspondence, they were tounded at the size of his accomplishments. Polk had in fact devoted much of his energy to averting a civil war.

Every survey of the Nation's Presidents in the last 10 years has placed him among the 10 greatest. Some historians place him at the top, as "the most successful," if Presidents are judged by what they accomplished.

Actually Polk would never have had a chance at the Presidency if it had not been for the touchy problem of slavery that was muddying political campaigns 20 years before the Civil War.

Martin Van Buren, who had already served one term in the White House, was practically sure of nomination as President, and Polk had hopes of being Vice President.

But the big question of the day was whether the United States should admit Texas to the Union, and Van Buren, a New Yorker, opposed that. The Texas question was being confused with the slavery question. Northern politicians were arguing that letting Texas into the Union would mean another slave State.

Andrew Jackson, old and frail and less than a year from his grave, summoned Polk from his Columbia home to the Hermitage. He told Polk to make his views known on Texas and win the election for the "Democrats. The Nation was in a mood to grow. And Polk, even though he had been out of office for 3 years (defeated in two tries for the governorship after one term), was still a power in national politics. His Columbia home, just down the street from where his parents' home still stands, was bustling with correspondence between him and party leaders in Washington.

Even President Tyler, of the opposition party, offered him the job of Secretary of the Navy during those years of retirement, but Polk turned it down. He was biding his time for the Vice-Presidency.

So, in May 1844, while the slow-talking, meticulously dressed Polk devised the strategy from his Columbia home, his friends, Cave Johnson, of Clarksville, and Gideon Pillow, of Columbia, went to the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore to work for his nomination for the Vice-Presidencyand just possibly for the Presidency.

The convention turned into a mad, fourIt way contest, with Van Buren leading. was not until the third day of balloting that Polk's name was proposed for the Presidency, and Van Buren withdrew in his favorthrowing the powerful New York delegation to the pro-Texas candidate from Tennessee.

On the second balloting after his name was introduced, Polk got the unanimous vote of the convention. All of a sudden the Nation had its first "dark horse" candidate, and the opposition delighted in chanting, "Who is James K. Polk?"

To balance the ticket, easterner George M. Dallas, a Pennsylvanian whom Sarah Polk later described as "an elegant man, tall, exceedingly handsome, and gentle in manner," was nominated as Vice President.

Thus the campaign slogan, "Polk, Dallas, and Texas!" streamed across campaign banners, and thus the Texas city of Dallas later got its name.

His race for the Presidency was against the famed Kentucky statesman Henry Clay. Polk lost Tennessee by 113 votes, but won the election. His victory hinged on the New York vote.

Word of victory reached him at his Columbia home by fast mail (a Nashville livery stable owner rode all night to get the message there) a day before papers got the news. Polk strolled down his hometown streets and took sly pleasure in the people who offered condolences for his "defeat."

President Polk was neither imposing in appearance nor endearing in manner. But he did know how to get things done, and he announced that he would get it done in one term.

He did sometimes ruthlessly, sometimes slyly, but always with the conviction that he had to serve the little man and to pave the way for the growth of this Nation.

But the slight man with the firey eyes shook the country with his new concept of the Presidency.

"I intend to be myself President of the United States," the tight-lipped Polk wrote from his Columbia home 10 weeks before his inauguration.

Absolutely incorruptible himself, a demon for work (he took only 6 weeks' vacation during his 4 years as President, and averaged 10 to 12 hours' work a day), he shattered himself in the effort.

"No President who performs his duty faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure," he wrote shortly before he left the White House. "If he entrusts the details and smaller matters to subordinates, constant errors will occur."

Polk made a point of being in Washington 2 weeks before his inauguration.

Methodically he listed the goals he would shoot at in his 4 years. Methodically, during those 4 years, he checked each goal off the list after he had coaxed, browbeaten, outmaneuvered overwhelming opposition in Congress.

Polk's goals were to annex Texas, acquire California, settle the dispute with England over Oregon and maintain American rights there, lower the tariff so it would be just to farmers and manufacturers alike, and thereby put an end to the division between the agricultural South and the industrial North, put an end to financial chaos and bank controversy by creating a sub-Treasury, or, as he called it, a constitutional Treasury.

For years, historians shrugged off these tremendous accomplishments by imagining that the going was easy then-that Polk was simply in tune with a Congress and a Nation that happened to want to move in the same direction he did.

Actually, he was at loggerheads with his Congress, his Cabinet, his generals, leading members of his own party as well as the opposition party most of the time.

When his four-volume diary-a meticulous record of his White House years-was published in 1910, historians understood for the first time the battles by which Polk steered the Presidency into new power and responsibility.

They saw that the earlier estimates of Polk as a proslavery President were far from the facts. His drive to stretch the Nation to the Pacific had nothing to do with extending slave territory. It was a determined drive to get America's hands firmly on Pacific ports, particularly San Francisco.

He held Cabinet meetings every week, encouraged each man to express his views, but

was seldom swayed from his own. He had Congressmen in to confer with him practically every night. When they balked at his bills, claiming they were carrying out the will of their constituents, Polk reminded them that he had constituents too-the whole country.

Cartoonists labeled him "King James," and his own Vice President despaired over the "cunning that so completely dominated Polk's actions that even his most devoted friends could not refrain from complaining to each other, with bitter grief and shame, of his crooked politics."

One Whig Congressman roared out on the floor of the House that "the whole Government is now virtually in the hands of the President" and a man had either to "stand on the platform with the Executive, or be pushed into the sea."

Polk was the first President since Washington to become in fact and deed Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Cornered into fighting Mexico to win the land settlement he had hoped to gain by negotiation, he had to battle his generals as well as the enemy.

But with all that, he was a master diplomat. When he decided to play his hand behind the scenes in the dickering with England over division of the Oregon territory (which then stretched all the way to Alaska and had been jointly governed by our country and England), congressional leaders were furious at his silence.

But his tactics wore down all opposition. and they drew the northern boundary of the United States where he wanted it. At the same time, he thought England and France had designs on California, and he wanted to buy it from a reluctant Mexico.

When Mexico finally met his terms, it was for half the amount he had originally planned to offer them: $15 million.

Throught sheer will and dogged cunning, he had rounded out our share of the continent in monumental proportions. He had added to our country not only what is now Texas, California, and Oregon, but also Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Washington, Idaho, and parts of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado.

Polk boiled at the tariff laws that made the "rich richer and the poor poorer," and the legislation dearest to his heart was the bill lowering the tariff. A cold, unsentimental man, he never nursed grudges or cultivated hates. If he found a good man for a job, he appointed him. no matter how bitterly that man had attacked him on former issues.

He was scrupulously careful never to accept a gift of value from anyone while he was in office. When someone sent him a fine horse, he returned it. When someone else sent him wine, he paid for it.

He and Mrs. Polk considered it beneath the dignity of the White House to have dances there, and they cut out that practice.

Sarah Polk worried over her husband's poor health, tried to get him out of the White House for a carriage ride occasionally, spared him every possible annoyance, read the newspapers first to mark the stories he would want to read.

"The White House was the abode of pleasure while I was there," she recalled in her 42 years of widowhood, lived out in Nashville, in the white-columned house that Polk bought, practically in the shadow of Tennessee's new capitol.

The house had once belonged to Felix Grundy, the canny old lawyer who had first taught Polk law, and the President, barely holding on to his health through his last year in office, must have had some sentiment about the place.

He wrote to his mother of his tremendous yearning for Tennessee and the years of rest he looked forward to, and Sarah busied herself with selecting drapery and upholstery material for the new home in Nashville.

Polk battled Congress to his last hour in office, and as he and Sarah stepped on the steamer the next day, bound for Tennessee, he was, at 53, a broken man.

His illness was so acute that he had to cancel appearances before crowds waiting to honor him on the journey home, and his arrival in Nashville was delayed several days because of his suffering at the boat's motion.

He could hardly make it through the welcoming ceremonies at the courthouse square where Gov. Neill Brown made the chief speech.

It was spring, 1849, and he and Sarah were eager to start work on the garden of their new home (where the Downtowner Motel is now, at Seventh and Union). Sarah was in a dither over the furniture, and Polk insisted on arranging his own books on the library shelves.

That exertion apparently was too much, and it was thought that he fell victim to the cholera epidemic that was infiltrating Nashville at that moment. In spite of all medical aid available, he died 12 days later, on June 15, 1849, just 3 months after he left the White House.

Polk had commissioned William Strickland, architect of Tennessee's capitol, to design his tomb, and it stood on the grounds of the Polk home until after Mrs. Polk died in 1891.

In 1893, the vault and monument, with Mrs. Polk buried beside her husband, were moved to the "back side" of Capitol Hill where it is seldom noticed by anyone any more, and not even the men who mow the steep hillside pause to read the tributes inscribed there to the man who "planted the laws of the American Union on the shores of the Pacific."

Farm Surpluses

SPEECH

OF

HON. PHILIP J. PHILBIN

OF MASSACHUSETTS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Wednesday, April 8, 1964

Mr. PHILBIN. Mr. Speaker, since corn, wheat, and cotton comprise more than three-quarters of our agricultural surpluses, it can be readily seen how important it is to concentrate governmental attack on the reduction of these surpluses of these major crops.

In large part, that was the purpose of the recent cotton-wheat bill. Tied in with efforts to reduce surpluses and to prevent additional surpluses, is the move by the House to help the waning textile industry, and to slacken the present, rather disquieting movement of farm and commodity price levels.

Time and again, I have pointed out the need of our Nation for general, national prosperity, as distinguished from spotty prosperity in some places and economic trouble spots, and unemployment and chronic poverty in other places.

I think we must take something more than a provincial view of the question of national prosperity. The Congress must recognize the need for looking at the national picture as a whole and for trying to reduce overemphasis on sectional interests and questions.

In this representative government, it is our job, of course, to represent our own constituents. That is why we have been