The Administration: Popgun Salvo

The Johnson Administration last week fired the opening salvo of its war on poverty—but it had all the impact of a popgun. In a news conference in Austin, Poverty Boss R. Sargent Shriver announced that of the $784.2 million appropriated last October to fight the war, $35 million was being ticketed for 120 projects in 32 states. Among them: $15 million to build or renovate 41 Job Corps sites, and $12 million for community-action programs ranging from English lessons for Papago Indian children in Arizona to retirement communities in southwestern Louisiana.

Shriver never did say just how he and his 181-man staff went about choosing recipients. But the standards certainly must have been flexible. One project, for example, was a $25,000 loan to a fruitcake manufacturer in Lafayette, La.