Newspaper Articles

Jovial and bearing an air of confidence, Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey (D-Minn) returned to Huntington for the fourth time today, visited factories and hobnobbed with citizens on the streets. The senator is campaigning for the West Virginia presidential preference at the primary election May 10.

The senator, who had been in Huntington at the Hotel Frederick overnight, rose early and proceeded with campaign assistants to the plant of Houdaille Industries, Inc. He found the plant struck with a picket line at the front gate. The senator did not cross the picket line.

The senator next went to the Owens-Illinois Glass Co.'s plant, where he chatted with employes [sic] at the main gate. He pinned "Humphrey for President" buttons on several of the employes [sic].

The senator was the guest of Huntington Democratic leaders and Democratic citizens at breakfast at the Hotel Frederick at 9 a. m.

He had a busy day ahead which included a visit to the Huntington Manufacturing Co.; a press, radio and TV conference at the hotel at 11 a. m. a noon address at the meeting of the Huntington Kiwanis Club at the hotel, street tours in the downtown business area, attendance at "Humphrey Evening" at Camden Park; an address in the park at 7 p. m., private meetings at the hotel with party leaders at 7:45 p. m., and a reception at 9 p. m. The reception will be given by the executive committees of Cabell, Wayne and Lincoln counties.

America should "visualize the opportunities, not just the problems, if disarmament is to be achieved," Humphrey said in a speech prepared for delivery at the Kiwanis Club luncheon.

"With a significant reduction of arms, America could accept these challenges:

"Switch the spending of billions from works of war, to constructive works of peace.

"Turn out full talents and resources to development of a better life for all citizens.

"Devote the efforts of our government to long-neglected public works projects.

"Build more and better schools, homes hospitals, highways and airports.

"Reduce taxes to allow each citizen to buy more for his family, and thus spur production," Humphrey declared.

As chairman of the Senate's disarmament subcommittee, Humphrey urged that the President "appoint an expert commission to spark this planning.

"We must draw together our business and industrial leaders, the leaders of organized labor, our scientists and professional men and state and local officials to prepare America to meet the problems imposed by disarmament, and to achieve the great opportunities that disarmament will offer us," he declared.

"Today our power of reason is staggered and our sense of proportion is shattered when we realize how much this country spends for works of war. We exhaust more than $40 billion every year just for military purposes. The cost of just one Polaris submarine is more than $100 million. Nine per cent of our total gross national product is devoted to defense. And almost 60 per cent of your tax dollar is eaten up in the effort to buy, maintain and staff the facilities and weapons of war."

In other remarks, Humphrey said "it's time for a revival of faith in the people, and it will take the Democrats to do it because they believe in the people, are concerned about the people and have trusted them.

Other excerpts from Senator Humphrey's remarks follow:

"Now it may be that some of you have read in the papers that I am in this campaign to stop somebody. Believe me, I am not. I am in this campaign to help start the Democratic party on the path to victory - I am in this campaign to stop the Republican administration.

"I am in this campaign to stop the waste of idle manpower and unused productive capacity. I am in it to stop the neglect of millions of our fellow-citizens and their urgent needs. I am in it to stop the alarming decline of our position in the world.

"I want to pull out all these stops and set signals for full speed ahead.

"I am not against anyone - except the Eisenhower-Nixon administration which has mismanaged the affairs of this nation for seven long years.

"I hold them accountable for the opportunities for economic growth and for public investment which they have wasted."

Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey (D-Minn), candidate for the West Virginia presidential preference in the primary election of May 10, said at a press conference at the Hotel Frederick today that pressure - "big, heavy and stimulated pressure" - was brought on him to withdraw after the Wisconsin primary.

Humphrey's opponent, Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass), defeated Humphrey by 100,000 votes for the Wisconsin presidential preference.

Humphrey, looking fit and relaxed despite his claim he is campaigning "20 hours a day," declined to say who exerted the pressure to get him to quit as a primary contender.

He declined, with no show of resentment, to answer a newspaperman's direct question as to whether the pressure stemmed from the Kennedy camp.

Sen. Humphrey said no pressure against him was exerted by labor leaders in Washington, as had been reported.

He said he is in the West Virginia primary race "to the end." He added that the presidency will not be decided in West Virginia. "What happens in this state will only be a factor in the final decision," Sen. Humphrey declared.

Surprisingly, considering the differences he and Sen. Kennedy have had lately, as aired in speeches, Sen. Humphrey refused to be led in to derogatory remarks about this opponent.

"Jack's been a fine senator and he's a good man," Sen. Humphrey asserted. "I have great esteem for him, even though I wish he would not be so melodramatic at times. He doesn't deserve to be discredited and he won't be discredited by Hubert H. Humphrey.

"When everything is over, and if Jack is the presidential nominee, he'll have all my support. I intend, after the primary is over, to extend the hand of friendship to him."

He added, as an extraneous afterthought: "Either of us can beat Nixon."

Sen. Humphrey refused to identify Kennedy as the man "who goes up and down the state with an open-end checkbook and a little black bag."

In a recent West Virginia speech he said he - Humphrey - wasn't the kind of man "who went up and down the state with an open end checkbook and a little black bag."

Interviewers pressed him repeatedly to say he referred to Kennedy. His final response was:

"All I will say is that the shoe fits somebody, let it fit. I didn't accuse any individual of going around with a checkbook and a black bag. And I didn't sell the shoe to anybody."

In this connection, Humphrey again pleaded campaign poverty, revealing that he started campaigning with a loan.

He was asked if he would accept the vice presidency if it were offered. "I haven't been offered it," he replied, "and I don't want to discuss the subject until, and if I'm offered it."

"Who will win West Virginia's presidential primary? That question was asked by many publishers last week in New York at the annual newspaper convention. No one really knows the answer, but the fact that you hailed from West Virginia made you an expert and therefore you should know.

Nation-wide publicity on the campaign thrust West Virginia into the spotlight. Activities of the two presidential aspirants, Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, of Minnesota, and Senator John F. Kennedy, of Massachusetts, only entrants in the May 10 contest have kept the Mountain State in the news. Statements by Governor Cecil H. Underwood about the "gloom and doom" the candidates were preaching about West Virginia, as well as the "go home" speech made by Harold E. Neely, Republican gubernatorial candidate, and the Governor's telegram accusing NBC's David Brinkley of "rigging" TV news shows against West Virginia, made headlines all over the country.

This type of coverage made publishers conscious of the campaign going on in West Virginia.

At The Associated Press luncheon Otis Chandler, new publisher of the Los Angeles Times, his strikingly beautiful wife, and his father, Norman Chandler, who recently relinquished his post as publisher, carried on a lively discussion about the West Virginia primary. They had been following the campaign with considerable interest.

Next day at the Banshees luncheon, Henry C. Weidler, business manager of the Detroit Free Press, Frank Batten, publishers of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, Paul S. Huber Jr., president, and Ellis Lovelace advertising manager, asked many questions concerning developments in the West Virginia primary.

We shared a taxi coming home from the theatre the night President de Gaulle of France was attending the "April in Paris" charity ball at the Hotel Astor, with John R. Reitmeyer, president and publisher of the Hartford Courant, and Mrs. Reitmeyer. Our topic of discussion introducted [sic] by Mr. Reitmeyer, was the West Virginia primary.

These few samples show how far West Virginia has been projected into the nation's consciousness by the primary campaign.

Some publishers regretted the bad publicity the state was getting, yet they seemed to be enjoying the free-for-all battle.

One Southern publisher spoke feelingly about having a "bad press" on the activities in "your state."

It was pointed out that West Virginia's primary continued the struggle of Wisconsin, where Humphrey and Kennedy all but cut each other to ribbons. In the Mountain State they seemed to be knocking each other out, leaving the field wide open for another candidate to grab the nomination at the Democratic national convention in Los Angeles next July.

During this popularity contest in West Virginia, since no delegates will be committed, the picture that has been painted of the State has been one of misery and poverty, of unemployment and bigotry. The campaign has stressed the worst and overlooked the good points. The result is a terribly distorted picture, having little relation to the facts.

There seems to be little West Virginians can do to correct the wrong impression created by the primary speeches and publicity. Protests just keep the controversy raging and rarely correct the distortion. The campaign is a repetition of the slurs heaped on West Virginia by a story in the Wall Street Journal about a year ago and by a recent Saturday Evening Post article.

This is a continuing campaign that will not end with May 10. After the votes are counted politicians, pollsters and newsmen will analyze the results and West Virginia will be drawn and quartered all over again.

Who will win in West Virginia? It is certain West Virginia can't.

Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass) will make his fourth and final visit to Huntington and the surrounding area Friday.

The senator will arrive in the city at 12:50 p. m. where he will make a street tour and then deliver a speech on the courthouse lawn.

Following a private luncheon from 1:50 to 2:30 p. m., the candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in the May 10 West Virginia primary will go to West Fourteenth street for a brief speech and street tour.

He will have a street tour of Ceredo at 3 p. m. and will be at the Kenova town hall at 3:30.

Following a live telecast from WSAZ-TV at 8:30 p. m. Kennedy will journey back to Charleston, possibly stopping at Ripley.

Kennedy, whose rival in next Tuesday's election will be Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn), will leave the Kanawha Hotel at Charleston by automobile at 8 a. m. Friday and will arrive at Hurricane 35 minutes later for a street tour and speech.

He is due to speak at Hamlin and West Hamlin at 9:15 and 9:45 a. m. respectively.

Kennedy will arrive at Milton at 10:50 a. m. following a brief stop at Salt Rock. He will visit and deliver a brief address at Milton prior to stopping at Ona and then journeying on to Barboursville at 11:50 a. m. At the village he will conduct a street tour and make a speech from the junior high school steps.

Prior to coming to downtown, Kennedy will stop for a brief period in Guyandotte around 12:20 p. m.