Eleanor McGovern: A lively politician By MERYL GORDON NEW YORK 0 W! I tried to duck as the subway swerved and a cam- era man swung into me, his_ camera hitting me hard in the head. No sooner did he recov- er himself, than another enter- prising photographer, angling for a shot, fell into my lap . . . all of this with maybe 25 to 40 -people crammed into a single subway car trying to photo- graph Sen. George McGovern and his wife, Eleanor, who were taking a morning subway ride Tuesday, the day of the New York primary. I landed across from the Mc- Governs when we all crammed into the subway, and thus risk- ed danger to various parts of my anatomy as the camera men tried to snap new and different shots of them. It was the first day that Eleanor McGovern had appear- ed in New York with the Sena- tor, and in the odd moments when I could peer out between legs, arms and cameras, I tried to get a glimpse of her. My musings were interrupted brusquely. "All the McGovern party out" boomed a voice over the loud speaker. We all push- ed out of the car onto the plat- form only to hear 'in sorry, all the McGovern party must re- turn." This time, I tried to sit on the other side of the sub- way, and along came Ms. Mc- Govern and sat down next to me! Maybe I could interview her ... FOR THE next few hours. al- though I enjoyed the first class plus luxury of the plane, and a whirlwind trip through N e w Orleans, I was getting myself primed for the interview. Ques- tions ran through my head; the adrenalin flowed wildly, I had to borrow a tape recorder. Fin- ally, back on the plane, I went lip for my interview, only to find Ms. McGovern sleeping. Her press aid told ine that now wasn't good, I'd have to wait .. . maybe tomorrow. Disappointed and relieved, I joined the rest of the drinking press, having two gin and tonics and floating back into the haze, when Ms. McGovern's aide ran up and said "She wants to talk to you now." NOW! Grabbing my tape recorder, pen and pencil and questions, I rushed to the front of the plane. She was sit- ting in the front seat, looking relaxed, and I could barely hear her over the roar of the piane. VERY FRIENDLY, very will- ing to talk, Ms. McGovern ech- oed many of her husband's opin- ions. A true politician, she re- frained from being very opinion- ated and gave cautious answers to my questions. On abortion, she said, "I don't think it's something that t h e federal government can do any- thing about. I think it's where it should be, in the states. People at a local level should be able to find a solution that's satis- fying to them. There's -ao one answer". In reference to Sen. H,rtrert Humphrey's recent attacks on her husband, she coimented, "I think it's a move of despera- tion. He feels it's his last chance for the presidency -. he's run twice before. It doesn't seem like the Hubert H u m - phrey I've known for m a n y years. So many of the things he's been saying about my hus- band, he knows better. It's very distressing." MS. McGOVERN'S major con- cern is child and infant devel- opment, and she has been speak- ing to that concern across the country in these past eight months of campaigning. "I think the only way we're really going to bring about tre- mendous change for this coun- try is by helping our babies, by creating a stimulating loving en- vironment for them so they can learn, so that they may become whole human beings." I would like to be the White House child- ren's advocate." Ms. McGovern has been in touch with Democratic politics for a long time. Her father, Earl Stegeberg was Democratic says. "If nothing else, it's been a wonderful education for me. Marvelous things are happening in local communities . . . in talk- ling local problems. There's a lot of creative thinking going on in grass roots America." In the last few weeks of the campaign, security has b e e n very tight around the McGov- erns. Eleanor McGovern says, however, that they have not "liv- ed in fear" of an assassin. "Well, of course. we did think about it. I did as soon as the tragedy developed for Gov. Wallace, but its something that one doesn't dwell on. You just can't live in fear, and we don't." County Chairman of their area IN THE middle of our conver- in South Dakota. She met her sation, the pilot interrupted to husband in high school, when tell us we'd be landing soon in they debated against each other' New York. There, she was to . . . she won. rush to change, quickly attend a dinner, and then join her hus- She attended Dakota Wesleyan band and daughter Terry at the University, in business school victory party. along with George McGovern, Rus whom she married shortly af- hing, moving, going on to ter the beginning of World War the next agenda item. But for II the moment, in the last few . minutes of the airplane ride, she InS. McGO ERN' campaign- was calm, relaxed - and op- , timistic about her chances of be- been doing alone, has given her ing our country's "first Ms." a broader view of America, she next fall. NIGHT EDITOR: CHRIS PARKS NIGHT EDITOR: PAUL TRAVIS EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR: ROSE SUE BERSTEIN ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITOR: MERYL GORDON PHOTO TECHNICIAN: DAVID MARGOLICK Letters to The Daily To The Daily: THIS LETTER speaks about war research in the city and how most of us must share the responsibility for it. I admit that I am among those who have a greater responsibility because between 1956 when I graduated from engineering school and 1965 when I decided I could in con- science no longer work on war research, I work- ed on war research projects at the University, at Bendix Systems Division here and at Conduc- tron Corporation. There is a responsibility which City Council. local corporations, and the administrators and Regents of the University, as well as citizens here and throughout the State must face up to, that is, responsibility for condoning and abeting the continuing role of the University and spmo-ff local corporate enterprises in the automated de- struction of Southeast Asia and its peoples. Most of the war research here concerns some- thing called "remote sensing of the environ- ment", a technology in which the University and local corporations are probably pre-eminent in the country. For the most part "remote sen- ing" research here is done for the Pentagon or ing" research here is done for the Pentagon or a mote sensing is destruction for thousands oft human beings. As the eyes and ears of tie auto- mated battlefield and the air war it means destruction of people, animals, plants, and land in Southeast Asia.' At the May 17 public hearing before C i t y Council on the air war and local war research, philosophy Prof. Frithjof Bergmann charged that "standing by in silence cripples our souls." I would add to that and say that if we here eon- tinue to accept the profits of silence and inac- tion we sell our soul as well. AT WHAT price do we sell the -oul of our community and our University? Is the pisice for some of us political support and donations of the developers of these devices? Is the price t he good esteem of war profiteers? Is the price the approval of their supporters? For those among us who are war research workers, is it the paycheck we collect or a feeling of achieve- ment when one of our devices is added to the arsenal? What we have been doing and allowing to be done in our city and in our University is a hid- eous sin against humanity. We must begin to atone for that sin. We must insist that the administrators of our University and our Regents cease their efforts to destroy the Ann Arbor anti-war movement and instead :help to dig a lasting memorial bomb crater on the University Diag as an act of atone- ment for developing the sensors used in de- stroying Southeast Asia. We must ask the State Legislature to do whatever is in their power to forbid the use of any state facilities for war research. We must demand that City Council members face their responsibility as elected officials with legal powers and pass ordinances which recog- nize that war research violates the public good and which declare production or sale of any goods or services within the city to destroy or impair human or animal life or property in Southeast Asia to be a public nuisance. WE WHO are against the war in Southearst Asia must withhold our own votes, campaign funds, and electoral campaign support from any council candidates who refuse to vote for strong anti-war resolutions and ordinances having legal power. -David Gordon Ann Arbor Coalition to End the War June 19 "Sergeant, just classify this as 'protective reaction' strike against hostile enemy action and military building .. . Any questions?"