THE ADMINISTRATION: Gerald Ford: Off to a Fast, Clean Start

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Then the President reached out to his adversary, organized labor. He invited AFL-CIO President George Meany over to the Oval Office for a chat, and the crusty old Meany, who in the end had thrown the resources of his office into the effort to impeach Nixon, came away impressed. Two days later, the AFL-ClO's chief lobbyist, Andrew J. Biemiller, announced that labor was prepared to support Ford's proposal for a new Cost of Living Council with jawboning rather than regulatory authority. It was true that organized labor had felt "zapped" by Nixon's former council, Biemiller said, but it would go along with the new proposal because "today we have a new President. We have confidence in the integrity of this President." Before the day was out, Senators were speculating that Ford would get his council.

On Wednesday, Ford invited powerful Democratic Senator Russell Long of Louisiana over to the White House to talk. Long's support would be helpful to the President in achieving the compromise health-care program that Ford so firmly wants to get through Congress this year. In this area, as in his successful wooing of Senators Jackson, Javits and Ribicoff on the trade reform bill compromise, Ford seemed to be working at full speed to make the most of the honeymoon while it lasts.

"Start with Me." One day last week the mayors of 16 U.S. cities asked which White House aide they should deal with in the new Administration. Replied the President: "Start with me." To the 16 mayors, as well as to the 14 Governors he saw last week, he emphasized his commitment to carry on Nixon's revenue-sharing program, but he told the mayors that he would veto the $20 billion mass-transit bill as too costly.

When some Governors and county executives complained that they had had difficulty gaining access to the White House in the past, Ford urged them to take their problems to Domestic Assistant Kenneth Cole and promised that Cole would forward the matters to the President within two days or less. "And if Ken Cole is not responsive," added Ford, "then you can see me." The out-of-towners, who remembered that Richard Nixon's technique had been to deliver a well-framed monologue and then turn the meeting over to an assistant when the discussion began, pronounced themselves impressed. "The style of President Ford," said Washington Governor Daniel Evans, "is to be casual, informal, candid." Said San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto: "This was a great thing. It had been a long, long time since we had been in the White House"—almost four years, in fact.