Johnson's Health, Successors Creating Alarm In U.S.

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30316, 17 December 1963, Page 17

Johnson's Health, Successors Creating Alarm In U.S.

(Specially written for the N.Z.P.A. by FRANK OLIVER]

When a Vice-President succeeds to the Presidency, and it has happened twice in less than 20 years, there is always much discussion about the possible incapacity or death of the President.

The discussion is always urgent, but today it is more than ever urgent for two reasons: First, that the new President has had a severe heart attack, and second that the two men in line of succession are aged 71 and 85.

In the press the situation is being described as a national emergency for the reasons that the President works with manic energy and that the two men next in line for the heaviest responsibilities of statesmanship in the world are only distinguished for being completely undistinguished.

Already a great many people are worried about Mr Johnson. In the “New York Times,” James Reston said that in his first two weeks in the White House, Mr Johnson did everything except mow the lawns. This is one of those ridiculous statements that carry the picture of truth. The man is fantastic. He is the kind of man who can and does interrupt a serious conversation to listen to two telephones at the same time, answering each one alternately and sensibly, and after five or 10 minutes of this

dual communication drops the receivers and resumes his conversation as if there had been no interruption.

Pace Too Difficult?

To be brutal about it, people are beginning to ask not whether this man can survive a full term from next November, but Whether he can at this pace last the remaining 11 months of the Kennedy term. These things have generated the discussion about succession and practically everyone in public life and in the press is putting in his two cents worth. Democrats in the Kennedy tradition are frankly horrified that Speaker McCormick could possibly succeed Mr Johnson before Jannary, 1965. He came to his position practically on seniority alone, has never been noted for any sign of statesmanship and has quite frankly shown opposition to Kennedy policies and Kennedy political philosophy. According to the law the next in line is the President pro tempore of the Senate, Carl Hayden, who at 85 could not be expected to carry the enormous Presidential burden for reasons of physioue

WASHINGTON, December 16.

and age. However, that section of the law is not likely to become reality, for reasons which will be given later. Earlier Law Until 1947. the law said that if a Vice-President succeeded to the Presidency because of the death of the

Chief Executive the next man in line was the Secretary of State. This stood for a long time but it worried Mr Truman and he was instrumental in putting the succession in Congress. Cynics have recently written that one of his motives was probably that he wanted the most favourable Congressional view of his suggested legislation, but this seems grossly unfair to Mr Truman.

He is a keen student of American history and the Constitution and especially of the Presidency. He is said to have been bothered by two things: that under the law the succeeding Vice-President could name his own "accessor and that anyway the Speaker was an elected official not an appointed one like the Secretary of State. Congress thereupon passed the law putting the succession m Congress and it still stands. Eisenhower’s View Some notable people do not favour the current law. Among them is Mr Eisenhower, who thinks the succession should be put back in the Cabinet. One of the most prominent constitutional scholars thinks the same way. Speaker McCormick says he likes the succession the way it is. Mr Truman’s reasons for changing the law seem utterly sound at first sight. The trouble is that men do not seem to reach the speakership until they are old. Mr McCormick is 72. His predecessor, Mr Sam Rayburn, was nearly 80 when ill health forced his retirement. If the Republicans come to power a year from now their speaker will be just short of 70. The White House burdens today call for an Atlas but it is hard for a man of 70 to be that. What then, it is asked, about a Senate President who is 85? However, his chances of succeeding seem very remoto. If Speaker McCormick did succeed then the House would as a first piece of business elect a new Speake and it is presumed he would stand to succeed before the Senite President. But there are many people who make a wry face when it is suggested the successor to the President be an appointed official like the Secretary of State.