THE NEW PRESIDENT: A MAN FOR THIS SEASON

(4 of 7)

Ford was careful not to lose touch with Grand Rapids. He did not try to impress his constituents by loading his district with pork: using his influence to land lucrative defense contracts or military installations for Grand Rapids. He concentrated instead on personal service. European relatives of Grand Rapids citizens had little trouble migrating to America. Jerry Ford smoothed the way for them. In a biography of Ford that has just been published, Author Bud Vestal quotes a remark that has made the rounds in Michigan: "Every Dutch immigrant since Ford went to Congress just happens to have been an underground Resistance hero during World War II. And every Latvian who wants to come to Grand Rapids was the leading physician in Riga before the Russians took over."

While he served in Congress, Ford managed to get back to Grand Rapids every week. He would hold open house in a trailer to greet all the voters who failed to come to Washington to see him. "He runs the best constituent service I have seen anywhere," says A. Robert Kleiner, Democratic co-chairman of Michigan's Fifth District. "After 25 years, there's almost nobody in the district he hasn't done a favor for."

Ford's career was progressing just the way he had planned—one careful step at a time—until it was given an upward jolt by some of his impatient colleagues. After the 1964 Democratic landslide thinned Republican ranks in the House, a group of Young Turks decided that a change of leadership was necessary to meet the challenge of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. They urged Ford to run for House minority leader against Incumbent Charles A. Halleck of Indiana. After a vigorous campaign, Ford eked out a narrow, six-vote victory in the Republican caucus.

His new post made Ford a national figure with a handy pulpit to express his views. He joined the late Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen in "The Ev and Jerry Show," a weekly televised press conference that was intended as a G.O.P. rebuttal to the Great Society. True to character, Ford was content to play straight man to Dirksen's grandiloquent grandstanding.

"No man's light will be hidden under a bushel," Ford assured his fellow Congressmen. "Every Republican will have a voice in decision making and a chance to make a name for himself." Ford gave credit where it was due, took less than his share and made friends in both parties. No arm twister, he was a patter and a hugger. "It's the damndest thing," mused Louisiana's Democratic Congressman Joe D. Waggonner Jr. "Jerry just puts an arm around a colleague or looks him in the eye, says, 'I don't need your vote,' and gets it." Adds Edward F. Derwinski, an Illinois Republican, "Jerry is an open tactician. He doesn't look for clever ways to sneak in behind you. He does the obvious, which is usually common sense."