ASHES . ELBASE ON THE WHITE HOUSE FLOOR!
Lyndon B. Johnson is undoubtedly one of the most well- balanced presidents it has been the good fortune of the United States to have. His cancern about. tidying up the Vietnamese countryside by reducing the foliage, crops, thatched huts, villages. and towns to ashes is balanced by his concern to keep ashes off the rugs of the White House. - The tidy streak. in the. makeup of one of America’ Ss. great presidents, if not the greatest, has rated as top human interest in some of America's major publications.
«The April 6 Time. Magazine, for. instance, described in detail. how Felix Belair of the New.-York Times was caught in flagrante delicto by the president in his "anti-ash campaign." Time Mag told how the "offending ash rained onto the green carpet" from the correspondent's cigarette in-the presence of the Commander in Chief, and how, "mortified, Mr. Belair quickly followed it down , kneeling to-scoop it up with his. notebook."
The May le Times Talk, the house organ put out by the New York ‘Times in the interests of "greater rapport" and company-minded thinking among its 5,500 employees, asked Mr.- Belair for his ver- Sion of this historic bit of memorabilia involving the greatest of American presidents.
The following is the full text of Mr. Belair's account of what happened:
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Walking across -the lobby to the White House press room my mind was-a millrace of bon. mots and retorts formidables. The least . I might have said was, "It wouldn't have happened if you'd stayed next door where you belong," or "If you had to plunk down next to one of the working press you could at least avoid: bumping him in the process." But all I could do at the time was to mumble a fourletter expletive unfit for publication in a family journal.
Actually, I didn't know the Great Man had entered the room. White House "regulars" had somehow created the impression that his approach would be heralded by a blast from the heavenly trumpets. Although ‘aware that’ something heavy had hit the deck a couple of chairs away I was too busy keeping up with my notes on Secretary Orville Freeman's spiel about food for India to realize that I was actually in The Presence until I heard that familiar drawl. It sounded like this: “ "“Linmmy eit yall a ‘ashtray. An kaint have yall dirtyin' up mah flow."
So I knew then that I had violated the latest addition to the list of cardinal sins as handed down by L.B.J. The ash from ny cigaret had already hit the carpet. He couldn't know that I had moved the ash try in the row behind to a position at my elbow. So there was nothing to do but try to scrape up the ashes in the wad of papers I was using for notes.
They saythe President seemed pleased at this, but whether this was becausé I tried to retrieve the ash or because he thought I was on one knee -- I wouldn't know. I was really only squatting. But one of the "regulars" among the newsmen seemed to think otherwise. He stopped me in the press room to say: "You overdid it in there a little, didn't you! We-don't really genuflect for the guy -much as he might like the idea."
I thought no more about the incident until somebody showed me a copy of Time Magazine and a short piece about it. So I couldn't resist writing my first letter ‘to an editor in 46 years as a reporter. wea
To Henry Robinson Luce wrote I in part:
"The offending ash could not have rained onto the green carpet because the carpet isa brilliant red.
"Belair was not mortified, ‘as Time reported. No one mortifies so easily who was for five years your Washington Bureau chief." <.