Cities: Warning for Washington

Musing over Los Angeles, Lyndon Johnson forgot for a moment last week that a presidential statement can have an impact out of all proportion to its literal meaning. He had just signed a public-works bill when he began to talk extemporaneously about the "years of inaction" and other factors that led to the riot, remarking that such outbursts "occur in different sections at different times." Added Johnson: "Those of you here in the District of Columbia, I want to warn you this morning that the clock is ticking, time is moving, that we should and we must ask ourselves every night when we go home, are we doing all that we should do in our nation's capital, in all the other big cities of the country."

As Johnson's words were producing scare headlines about possible new violence, House Minority Leader Gerald Ford leaped at the opportunity to get even for the cracks that have been coming his way lately from the White House. He said the President's remarks amounted to "an invitation to trigger terrorism in the streets."

Actually, Washington (pop. 809,700), the only major U.S. city with a majority of Negro citizens (58%), has been relatively free of racial strife. But it has areas that simmer in much the same juices as Watts or Harlem. Later, after a White House press aide tried to cover up by insisting that L.B.J. had not intended to single out the capital, Johnson told reporters: "I meant just what I said—that we ought to try to face up to these problems that we have before we have to suffer more serious problems."