‘March To White House’ Begun

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31775, 4 September 1968, Page 15

‘March To White House’ Begun

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, September 3. Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, who walked up Fifth Avenue at the head of a Labour Day parade of 100,000 marchers yesterday, said he was starting “a victory march to the White House.”

New York's leading Demo-; erat, the Senate candidate, Mr j Paul O’Dwyer, who was also in the parade, refused to march with Mr Humphrey because of his stand on the Vietnam war. Mr O’Dwyer, who backed] Senator Eugene McCarthy, won the Senate nomination' on a peace platform. The Vice-President, hatless, walked between Mr George Meany, president of the A.F.L.-C.1.0. labour organisation, and Mr Harry van Arsdale, head of the millionstrong New York Central Labour Council. Policemen lined the avenue and patrolled rooftops.

There were some cheers and boos for Mr Humphrey and a few placards for and against him, but the crowd’s response was mild. PLEA REJECTED Earlier, Mr Richard Nixon’s' campaign headquarters had I rejected a proposal from Mr Humphrey that they should: join hands in a bi-partisan declaration to do nothing to' jeopardise the Paris peace; talks on Vietnam. “Now that the conventions are over and the Presidential campaign's about to begin,” Mr Humphrey said in a telegram to Mr Nixon, “I believe both candidates should make it absolutely dear that they share a basic commitment to the success of the negotiations now taking place in Paris.”

Saying that Mr Humphrey’s proposal was “a bit of oldstyle partisan hi jinks,” one of Mr Nixon’s aides demanded that the Democratic Party candidate should clarify his own position on Vietnam. “The confusion has arisen from reports of Mr Humphrey’s lukewarm acceptance of the Vietnam platform plank dictated by President Johnson, and the Vice-Presi-dent’s subsequent comment that he is not tied to every

word of that platform,” said Mr Robert Ellsworth. “It is proper and, indeed, necessary for Mr Humphrey to clarify his position.”