Page Mine
Tuesday, May 21, 1974
Nixon's popularity
sinking in Peoria
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Learn from Watergate crisis,
Wilkens warns law graduates
Editor's Note: When he was
the President's top domestic
adviser, John Ehrlichman ssas
fond of asking, "Will-it play
in Peoria?" That was his way
of inquiring howe Middle Amer-
ica was reacting to what the
President was doing. Just hosw
well is the President playing
these days in Peoria?
PEORIA, Ill. (1P) - It was
early morning and raining and
the man standing under the roof
of the stockyards was Bill
Friedman, weathered and ld.
He was talking about Richard
Nixon.
"People figure he knew all
about it all the time, and that'd
he my opinion; and they figure,
'Why, some of those boys were
guilty, and why didn't he get it
out and over with a long time
ago?'" Friedman leaned on his
hog-sorting pole.
"IMPEACHED? I'm not sure
about that, but a hell of a lift of
them think he should resign,
and that's my feeling myself.
Now, some peo-
ple think he didn't have any-
thing ao do with it. And come
want to shoot him. But, in gen-
eral, a lot of them want him to
resign."
Hogs were selling for $30 a
hundred pounds, cattle $43.
Friedman, black hat nulled
down over his short-cropped
gray hair, learned close, al-
most touching his Jimmy l ur-
ante nose to his visitor's ear,
and out-bellowed the frigntened,
glassy-eyed animals.
He allowed he hadn't read all
of the President's transc.pts of
the Watergate tapes. But he
said he was 77 and had ueen
a livestock broker at the Peoria
stockyards for 50 years, ad he
figured he knew 'tow to iead
farmers.
"BEFORE THEM 'rans,'ripts
came out, there .vere nore
farmers that was Repuniicans
than Democrats. 3ut no'w it's
down to about S0-S0."
"Will it play in Peoria?" John
Ehrlichman used to ask When
he was the President's top do-
mestic adviser and had Middle
America in mind. Originally,
the line was a vaudeville joke,
Peoria, along with Kokomo,
Kalamazoo and Cucamonga,
was synonmous with squares-
To Peorians,, their reputation
is hardly a joke. Those w h o
grope for the Middle American
pulse have fingered Peoria's
wrists periodically for years and
ribbed Peorians in the bargain.
So it was with tired patience
that Bill Friedman and o t h e r
Peorians in representative jobs
and informed positions made it
clear last week that, thanks to
- his Watergate transcripts, Rich-
ard Nixon isn't playing as well
in Peoria as he once did.
Not that very many persons
agree with Goldie Brown, who
long before the transcripts were
published had established an
"Impeach Nixon Committee"
headquarters in her small white
house on Peoria's older South-'
west side. In an interview in
February, a month after she
had opened up, Mrs. Brown
counted 12,000 impeachment sig-
natures on her petitions.
UNDAUNTED by the small
fraction that number represent-
ed of the more than 339,600 per-
sons in Peoria and its environs,
Brown declared the President
"a crook." She added: 'lHe
ought to be impeached."
Now, three months later and
nearly three weeks after the
transcripts, Brown has gone to
Washingtpn. "She's staying at
the Watergate Hotel," her hus-
band said.
Mayor Dick Carver, however,
.has sensed no impeachment
groundswell. Settling back in
the black leather chair Sehind
his desk at the Carver Lumber
Co., founded by his father, he
reported: "Among the people
I talk to, I find the desire to
see the provisions of the Con-
stitution utilized."
CARVER SAID there was
nothing to show that any over-
'whelming number of Peorians
necessarily want to see Nixon
resign or the House of Rapre-
sentatives actually vote for im-
peachment. They simply want,
he said, to see proceedings stay
within the due process of law.
"But the transcripts are dis-
turbing as the daylights to me,"
Carver said.
By JEFF SORENSEN
Rioger Wilkens, assistant at-
torney general under President
Johnson, exhorted Unive'sity
law school graduates Saturday
to learn from the Watergate
scandals.
"Somewhere down the line
some of these men forgot what
they'd learned in law schowl,"
said Wilkens, a 1956 graduate of
the law school, in a speech (lur-
ing the school's Senior D7ay
ceremonies in Rackham I.e 'ture
Hall.
WILKENS RECENTLY joined
the editorial board of the New
York Times and was formerly
a member of -the edita,';al pcge
staff of the Washington Pos:. He
is a nephew of Roy Widkens,
executive director of the Na-
tional Association for the Ad-
vancement of Colored People.
"The best laws are only as
good as the people in _ sciety
will them to be," explained Wil-
kens.
He added that "all lawyers
,I"" oI ~ 55,,. i' "''i"
''-
st s s dlnauosapruna
s11al say t A noles O1 {d aojuli
00 OHd
are essentially public trustees"
and that members of the legal
profession have a "special re-
sponsibility,' to make. the -L w
work.
WILKENS DENIED that the
Johnson Administration, at the
time he worked n it, t, part
in any such "buggings, fiiongs
and bribings" as took place un-
der the Nixon leadersaip.
"The men in the Justice De-
partment at that time, like
Ramsey Clark and Cyrus Vance,
may have often argued and
made mistakes, but we were all
going the same way. We under-
stood the Constitution," s a i d
Wilkens,
Wilkens also charged that the
Nixon Administration has treat-
ed the Constitution "as ifI it
vere just a scrap of taper."
IE SAID he was "'beiur'ing
to wonder whether this I; truly
a government of lsrv, i of
men."
Wilkens said he was "inspir-
ed" by the fact that oen ' of
the integrity of John De-n, Ar-
chibald Cox and Elliot ticaar~d-
son were all lawyers."
lie said that when ne worked
on the Washington Post ie once
asked Cox what he would do if
the President put pressure on
him or tried to limit his inquiry.
"I'll do as much as I ccn, as
well as I can for as long us 5
can" Cox told Wilkens.
Wilkens also stated that work-
ing on the Washington 'tst
"during the early days of Wa-
tergate was a very lonely time.
BRITAIN'S LEADING
ASTROLOGER
R. C. DAVISON
WILL SPEAK
WEDNESDAY, MAY 221 1974
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