The Administration: Counterattack

"The Bible says Thou shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness.' One feels occasionally that for us it is that kind of noonday." Thus, in a speech at the University of North Carolina last week, John Gardner, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, articulated the Administration's concern at the rancorous tone that is now so pervasive in America. "More and more," said Gardner, "hostility and venom are the hallmarks of any conversation on the affairs of the nation.

Today, all seem caught up in mutual recriminations—Negro and white, rich and poor, conservative and liberal, hawk and dove,...