Out of the South

"L.B.J. ALL THE WAY!" proclaimed the campaign buttons that pretty Lynda Bird Johnson, 16, and her sister, Lucy Baines, 12, handed out in Denver, Cheyenne and Salt Lake City last week. And their daddy, Lyndon Baines Johnson, went almost--but not quite--all the way toward admitting that he is an eager presidential candidate. At a Houston press conference. Johnson was asked if he would accept the Democratic nomination. "I have served my country in every capacity in which I have been asked to serve," he replied. "I would not shirk my responsibility." He was aware that his name would be placed in nomination at the Democratic Convention, Johnson admitted. "I am very honored." Meanwhile, there were his Senate duties in Washington, but "from time to time I will visit with my friends over the nation."

Johnson's visiting took him westward, where the political climate was reportedly most favorable to the L.B.J. cause. Preceded by a bevy of "L.B.J. girls" wear ing the official red-white-and-blue L.B.J. uniform and waving a large L.B.J. flag, the Senator got a warm reception in Denver. "I love the West," said he, in his dogged effort to erase his Southern label. "It is determined to be different from the East and the South."

At the highly partisan Democratic State Central Committee breakfast in Cheyenne, Johnson rejected the support of party extremists, either of the Southern Bourbon right, or the Eastern A.D.A. left: "I would not want the support of extremists, and I would not be comfortable with it." Flying on to Salt Lake City, he addressed a $100-a-plate luncheon of 38 local businessmen (half of them Republicans). "If political victory requires that the Negro always be reminded that he is a Negro, the Catholic that he is a Catholic, the Jew that he is a Jew, the Mormon that he is a Mormon--and the Texan that he is a Texan," Johnson said, "then I am willing to forgo victory."

While Johnson was in Salt Lake City, 1,300 Democrats gathered in the Terrace Ball Room to select Utah's delegation to the Democratic Convention. The sentiment at the meeting was strong for Jack Kennedy and Stuart Symington, with some residual strength going for Adlai Stevenson. It is doubtful that Johnson picked up a single delegate vote in the three states he visited (total convention strength: 49 votes), but he did leave a good impression of L.B.J., the moderate, responsible candidate, and if the convention should become deadlocked, Johnson will find some new second-or third-round friends in the Rocky Mountain states.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.