Senate Wives' Bid To Improve Capitol

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31031, 11 April 1966, Page 2

Senate Wives' Bid To Improve Capitol

Life in Washington is by no means a round of parties, small talk and social activity for Mrs A. S. M. Monroney, wife of Senator Mike Monroney. She has many interests, built up during 27 years in the Capital.

“In Washington you feel in the centre of things. People are interested in what is happening in the world and the things which affect our country,” Mrs Monroney said y esterday.

Senator and Mrs Monroney are in Christchurch with a party of American senators and representatives, who will attend the Canberra planning session of the International Parliamentary conference, to be held later in Teheran. One of 10 members of the Senate Wives’ Club, Mrs Monroney spoke of the growing awareness of, ard support for, Mrs Johnson’s “beautifying America” campaign. "This year the Vice-Presi-

dent’s wife, Mrs Muriel Humphrey, suggested we have a special, additional programme, so we are helping to improve the Capitol grounds and the building itself,”- she said.

The women aim to have more trees planted, have campaigned for tourists visiting the Capitol to be more formally dressed—“so many wore shorts, we thought there should be more dignity”—and keep a watchful eye on legislation to do with the Capitol.

“If there are any bills coming up on the Capitol we get behind our husbands and nag our husbands into supporting them,” she said with a laugh. Plans for expanding the building include a new dining-room. Improving the standard of the food served in the Senate dining-room was one of the club's projects.

Completion of the National Cathedral in Washington, which has been “abuilding” for 60 years, has always been one of Mrs Monroney’s special interests. She is on the board of trustees, who are anxious for work to be accelerated because artisans capable of building the huge Gothic-style cathedral are dying out SEVEN CHAPELS The cathedral now has seven chapels; a boys’ school, St Alban’s, which the couple's son attended; a girls’ school; and classes for “little ones.” There is also a college of preachers holding regular inter-denominational refresher courses, and a college of church musicians. Poverty in America can only be alleviated through planned parenthood, Mrs Monroney feels. She has recently been elected to the movement’s national board and said much work was being done to encourage people to come to clinics. The couple’s home is in Oklahoma City, but not all their travelling is done between Oklahoma state and Washington. Since 1956 they have travelled to international parliamentary conferences at places all over the world, including Thailand, South America, England, and behind the Iron Curtain to Po-; land and Russia.

Next year the conference will be in Russia and Mrs|

Monroney is looking forward to her return visit. In 1959 she stayed for a month’s holiday after her husband returned to Washington. “This seems the best way to come to a common understanding with people. If we can send tourists who want to learn about people and promote friendship, countries will come much closer together. “I found the Russians very friendly if they could find you on your own. You have to have a guide with you all the time—that's not to watch you (I thought at first it was), but to help with the language,’’ she said.

Mrs Monroney’s guide was a young girl and they soon became good friends. “She

would put forward the Communist line all the time, but I told her I thought people should be free to believe in their own particular ideology and would not be drawn into an argument. “If we don’t try to say how wonderful everything is in America, or to express perfection in our way of life, they will be friendly. “When I was there people seemed to feel that anything was better than what they had before the revolution. Even if they have to share flats with several families, it’s better than it was,” she said. Mrs Monroney studies each country she plans to visit and keeps up with current events. .She considers a politician’s life interesting, but “it’s a hard life sometimes,” so she has mixed feelings about her son’s present campaign for a seat in Congress representing Maryland. “Politics,” she said “must be something you love.”