Lyndon Johnson, for all his simplicity, is acquiring some kingly habits. Wherever he goes nowadays he seems to have got into the habit of making a royal gift, like the kings of yore who when visiting their provinces would scatter about a chest load or two of ducats among the peasants, as evidence of their royal favor. Considering how much Mr. Johnson is given to traveling about, there is some fear for the endurance of the patrimony. His trip to Appalachia cost the royal exchequer one billion dollars. When he went up to the World’s Fair to speak to the Amalgamated Clothing Workers he was not in a munificent frame of mind, and dropped therefore a mere million-dollar gift to the cause of juvenile delinquency in Harlem. There was a splendid opportunity there, I thought, for Nelson Rockefeller to upstage him by making a gift of two million: but Nelson Rockefeller is busy these days, spreading his wealth among the peasants of California….
Buckley
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