Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
286411447
label
Nexis
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
286411447
contentType
document
title
Nexis
citationUrl
collections
Records of the Office of Speechwriting (Clinton Administration)
Alison (Lissa) Muscatine's Files
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
286411447
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
otherTitles
7431941-20171164S-038-003-2023
General Files
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
dbda12ca514dd60e
ocrText
PAGE
2
15TH STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright 1992 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
January 16, 1992, Thursday, Final Edition
SECTION: HOME; PAGE T16
LENGTH: 4374 words
HEADLINE: White House Chronicles: A Bicentennial Salute
SERIES: Occasional
BYLINE: Patricia Dane Rogers, Nancy L. Ross
BODY:
On Oct. 13, 1792, workers laid the cornerstone for the White House. The first
of Washington's great public buildings, it was also to be a family home. Now 200
years later, tales of kids and pets and pols resound. But the cornerstone can't
be found.
Harry S. Truman called it a "glamorous prison. To Gerald R. Ford it was "the
best public housing I've ever seen." Mary Todd Lincoln referred to it as "that
Whited Sepulcure."
The White House, which celebrates its 200th anniversary this year, has been
the home of 39 presidents and their families since John Adams moved in. The
original mansion took eight years to build. When his wife, Abigail, arrived in
November of 1800 with her eight servants to become its first chatelaine, she
found a house that bore little resemblance to the executive mansion of today. In
a letter to her sister and daughter she complained that the main staircase had
not been built yet and that the meager supply of firewood had been used to dry
the plaster walls.
"It is an establishment big enough to need 30 servants to run it properly.
There is a great unfinished audience room [the East Room] I make a drying room
of, to hang up the clothes in
Bells are wholly wanting and promises are
all you can obtain."
Almost two centuries later, First Lady Barbara Bush tells a vastly different
tale.
"Thanks to Nancy Reagan, those private quarters are perfectly beautiful, she
writes in an essay on these pages. "In fact, because of her work, this is the
only old house that George and I have ever moved into
where everything
works."
Nancy Reagan herself would describe the White House with awe. "There's a
feeling of wonderment," the former First Lady recalled last week. "Are you
really in this beautiful house where so many have lived before you, so much
history has been made? The first few weeks you're really in a daze."
In Reagan's memoirs, "My Turn," she details the perquisites that made it feel
like a palace. "If we needed a plumber, we'd call the usher's office and he'd be
there in five minutes.' There were people to wrap packages and wind clocks.
PAGE
3
The Washington Post, January 16, 1992
And just as soon as the president took a suit off, it would be whisked away for
pressing, cleaning or brushing. The sheets are changed after every use, even a
catnap. It was, her son Ron concluded, "an eight-star hotel.
But for all the grand scale and unsurpassed history of the White House,
living there can have its bittersweet moments, according to other former first
families who agreed to be interviewed last week for this article. Betty Ford
recalled feelings of loneliness after years in an Alexandria neighborhood.
"You also feel very much that you are in that proverbial fishbowl everybody
talks about, she said.
Luci Baines Johnson, who was 16 when her father, Lyndon, became president
after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, recalls those days with emotion.
"For me, it was the best of times and the worst of times but it's a march
through history and there's not a moment you live there that you are able to be
oblivious to that.' She quoted her mother, Lady Bird Johnson, who believed
firmly, "We are guests in this house."
"It's your home but not really your home," said Luci. "It was always on
loan."
Congress passed the Residence Act in 1790 authorizing a house for the
president. The cornerstone of the executive mansion which no one has been
able to locate during the current renovation -- was laid Oct. 13, 1792. In the
years between the family of the second president, who lived there for only four
months, and the Bushes, who are about to begin their fourth year, the White
House has endured being sacked and burned, gutted, extended, modified, improved,
renovated and redecorated. It has survived as a grand symbol of the presidency,
as well as the home of the First Family. Its history is an amalgam of public and
private life, of statecraft and monkey business within its walls.
"The White House is the first of the great public buildings of Washington,"
said historian William Seale in an interview. "George Washington's concept of a
capital city was visionary. The government was highly experimental yet it
flourished. It is the model for the Western world. Eastern Europe has gone our
way and that house is a symbol of that first seed of architecture in the Capital
City. You can't deny its power."
The main house, designed by James Hoban, now covers 55,000 square feet on
four floors, not including basements and wings. There are 130 rooms, give or
take a few broom closets. Those most often seen by the public and visitors are
the Blue, Red, Green and East reception rooms on the main floor in which
official and sometimes private functions are conducted and the Oval Office
in the West Wing.
The living quarters consist of five rooms on the second floor designated as
just for private use the West Sitting Hall, a dining room, a dressing room,
one bedroom and a sitting room plus the third floor, which by 1927 had added
six bedrooms, three sitting rooms, servants' quarters, storage and utility rooms
and a solarium.
There is no constitutional requirement that the president live in the White
House, according to Seale. Grover Cleveland disliked it so much that he and his
wife lived elsewhere in present day Cleveland Park as much as they could
PAGE
4
The Washington Post, January 16, 1992
until his second term of office ended in 1897.
Dolley Madison and Julia Grant loved the White House, as did most of the
presidential wives of the 20th century.
"All the presidents' wives hated to leave," wrote J.B. West, White House
chief usher who served First Ladies from 1941 until his departure in 1969. "They
appreciated the services and status that went with their role, no matter how
much they yearned to be out of the spotlight of the glass White House."
Privacy or the lack thereof -- has always been a major drawback, even as
the problems of space and comfort were gradually resolved. Abraham Lincoln's
family lived with soldiers sleeping on the floor of the East Room and begging
treats from the kitchen. Then as now, the main floors were filled during the day
with tourists, visitors, journalists. As a result, first families have long
delighted in finding hideaways on the second and third floors.
In her memoir, "First Lady from Plains,' Rosalynn Carter remembered how her
family found privacy on the White House roof, where they sunbathed.
"There's no place to hide, no place to stomp your feet,' Luci Johnson said.
"Harry Truman was chastised for building the Truman balcony but he said he did
it because he wanted to have a place to sit alone with his wife." As a teenager,
she said, she courted in the third floor solarium. So did other presidents'
children.
Over the years the White House has seen a lot of living: Ten weddings and
seven deaths involving immediate presidential family members (plus a skeleton
embedded in the walls found during a 1902 renovation, according to Seale), a
number of births, illnesses, courtships and affairs.
Cleveland was the only incumbent to marry in the White House, a place he
believed would afford him more privacy from the press than any place except a
"federal fort.' The quiet Blue Room ceremony uniting him and Frances Folsom in
1886 was modest compared with the 1906 East Room extravaganza for Theodore
Roosevelt's daughter, Alice, and Nicholas Longworth, a congressman. A thousand
guests and press watched as that wedding party crossed the transverse hall to
the accompaniment of the Marine Band. Newspapers related that the young bride
commandeered a major's dress sword to cut the cake.
Semi-private as well as official events in the White House were covered by
the press well before the photo opportunity was invented. Everyday life tended
to be chronicled in letters, diaries, memoirs and biographies.
"When White House occupants move away they tend to see their years there as
pictures hanging on the wall," said Seale. "That's why John Quincy Adams's or
Polk's or Lady Bird Johnson's or Mrs. Taft's diaries are such incredible records
of what happened. It's personal and very different from an autobiography written
with an audience in mind."
Abigail Adams's letters were published in 1840. Julia Grant wrote the first
memoir by a First Lady in 1891, yet it was not published until 75 years later.
Now children and even dogs write about life on the inside. Still other accounts
come from former employees, relating the foibles as well as the heroics of the
first families. The most comprehensive and authoritative work, which ties
PAGE
5
The Washington Post, January 16, 1992
public and private lives together, is Seale's "The President's House, published
in 1986.
His companion work on White House architecture, "The White House: History of
an Idea," is to be published in April as part of the bicentennial events being
organized at presidential sites and libraries around the country under the aegis
of the White House Historical Association. The series of activities, many of
them open to the public, begins next week in Washington. Among the events, a
major exhibition, "The White House 1792-1992: Image in Architecture," opens Jan.
23 at the Octagon Museum.
"The whole object is to make the American people better informed about the
role the White House has played in American History," said Rex Scouten, curator
of the White House. "It is the most recognized house in the world. In addition,
it is the only home of a head of state in the world that is open to the general
public free of charge. And other than in times of war and national
emergency, it's been that way for 200 years."
Seale described the house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as "basically an
English country house." Discussing the changes over nearly two centuries, he
observed, "We moved so fast in the 19th century that you see American life and
customs reshaping the inside of the house while the exterior remains more or
less the same."
Among the changing customs is the size of presidential families. While early
presidents frequently had large extended families living in the White House and
numerous children, smaller arrangements have generally become the rule. In fact,
in her book "Simply Barbara,' Washington Post reporter Donnie Radcliffe writes
that Nancy Reagan had advised Barbara Bush not to have her children live in the
White House. Nancy Reagan denied last week that she had offered such advice, but
in any case, the Bushes' five children and 12 grandchildren visit but do not
live in.
For children, the experience seems to have been mixed. The sons of Abraham
Lincoln regarded the mansion as akin to a prison. When he was 7, Tad aggravated
visitors by pulling their beards and turning his pet goat loose. He also set up
a lemonade stand in the entrance hall and once stood in a window above his
father at a military review waving a Confederate flag, according to Seale.
Teddy Roosevelt's six children Alice, Quentin, Kermit, Archie, Ted and
Ethel roller skated on the wooden floors, slid down the banisters and walked
up the carpeted stairs on stilts, according to chief usher Ike Hoover's
"Forty-Two Years in the White House." The tradition has continued in the latter
20th century. "I roller skated on the marble floors in the walkway between the
East and West wings," If Susan Ford Bales admitted in an interview.
Charlie Taft and Quentin Roosevelt stuck spit balls that looked like warts on
the portrait of Andrew Jackson, Lillian Rogers Parks recounted in "My 30 Years
Backstairs at the White House." Margaret Truman and her college friends held
slumber parties on the second floor.
Lyndon Johnson's daughters, Lynda and Luci, liked to dance and "kept the
staid old halls jumping with the frug, the monkey, the watusi, usher West
recalled. But looking back, Luci Johnson said, "I'd have given anything for
someone a peer to tell me how to learn to avoid mistakes. There was
PAGE
6
The Washington Post, January 16, 1992
none. "
Although the White House appears to be an enormous mansion when judged by its
exterior, the living quarters have drawn complaints from some presidential
families. Chester A. Arthur wanted to raze the house but ended up having it
redecorated by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Caroline Harrison, wife of Benjamin, whose
crowded household included six adults and three children in eight rooms and two
baths, tried to enlarge it. It was Teddy Roosevelt who finally succeeded in
creating more bedrooms, each with bath, for his large family by shifting offices
to the new West Wing.
In 1948, after Margaret Truman's piano leg broke through the floor, the
Truman family decamped to Blair House for 3 1/2 years. The entire mansion was
gutted and rebuilt.
Some alterations have been prosaic, such as Florence Harding's renovation of
Warren's bookcase into her shoe closet; Nancy Reagan commandeered a second floor
bedroom for an exercise room; others were state of the art for the era.
Take the plumbing. In 1803 Thomas Jefferson replaced the Adamses' outdoor
privy with two custom-made water closets. A ladies room was installed in 1850,
yet the custom of passing chamber pots after dinner to gentlemen in the White
House dining room lasted until the 1880s.
Andrew Jackson had the first bathtub put in, although it wasn't until 17
years later in 1850 that hot and cold running water were provided. William
Howard Taft, who weighed 322 pounds around the time he arrived at the White
House in 1909, required a king-size tub. One big enough to accommodate four men,
who posed in it for a photograph, was installed.
Lyndon Johnson went through five showers in his search for one with enough
water pressure, according to usher West. His successor, Richard M. Nixon, got
blasted by LBJ's shower and had it changed back.
Other amenities installed by first families include the first White House
furnace in 1850, a refrigerator in 1845, and electric lights in 1891. A
primitive air-conditioning system was invented there in 1881 to cool the fever
of James Garfield as he lay dying from an assassin's bullet, according to Navy
Department records.
Several First Ladies of recent years made improvements that won praise and
thanks from their successors. Jacqueline Kennedy added the kitchen and dining
room on the second floor and Pat Nixon had a beauty parlor installed.
Almost every chronicler offers a glimpse of how expensive it is to live in
the White House. In her memoir, Nancy Reagan expressed surprise that the first
family would be charged for every meal they and their personal guests ate in the
private quarters and all personal expenses down to the presidential toothpaste.
Jacqueline Kennedy expressed shock when the bills for her first month's
champagne and caviar parties were presented. She shifted her personal grocery
account from the French Market in Georgetown to the wholesale official supplier
for the White House, West recounted. He also remembered that Mamie Eisenhower,
whose husband was not wealthy, read the newspapers for food ads and personally
called store managers and sent the Secret Service out to take advantage of
PAGE
7
The Washington Post, January 16, 1992
special sales. She also kept track of leftovers.
Woodrow Wilson went around turning off the lights. Jimmy Carter turned the
heat down when the price of oil skyrocketed. Zachary Taylor, who served for one
year in the mid-19th century, saved money by staging stag dinners after his
wife, Margaret, fell ill, according to his accountant's memoirs.
In this century all presidential furniture not being used is sent to a
warehouse, but in 1860 the White House auctioned off its old curtains, carpets
and mattresses to bolster the budget. Public records show that bachelor
president James Buchanan's niece and hostess, Harriet Lane, got rid of the fine
French furniture ordered 40 years earlier by James Monroe. Eventually, former
White House curator Clement Conger bought the pieces back.
"The Nixons wanted it to be the most beautiful house in America," said
Conger, "and we did it. It still is except for the damage done by Ted Graber. He
put in modern sofas." Graber redecorated for Nancy Reagan.
Not all women relished the moment when they became mistress of the mansion.
When Martha Johnson Patterson, daughter of Andrew Johnson, moved into the White
House after Lincoln's assassination in 1865, she felt compelled to announce, "We
are plain folks from Tennessee. I hope not too much will be expected of us,"
according to an account in "First Ladies," by Betty Boyd Caroli.
When Lyndon Johnson became president less than a hundred years later after
another assassination, daughter Luci recalls her mother's reaction: "I was
walking past my parents' bedroom after the assassination and I overheard a
conversation that stopped me in my tracks. My father was saying that he had
spoken with the Kennedy family and that the best day to move from the Elms to
the White House would be Dec. 7. My mother said, 'I can't!'
"This is the first time I'd ever heard her say 'No. I can't. I absolutely
can't do it,' instead of what she'd usually say -- 'I'll do my best. She was
outright belligerent.
"My father needed to choose a date. His response to my mother was, 'Bird, we
don't have a choice,' and she said, 'Of course.'
"I recall it because my mother's response was so shocking to me at the
time
and now it is the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor."
For the women, taking care of the house was not necessarily part of the job
description, although Patterson covered the carpets with muslin. She also kept
COWS on the lawn.
As interested as Theodore Roosevelt's wife, Edith, was in running the place
she reorganized the staff, appointing a major domo cousin Franklin's wife,
Eleanor, had other priorities, ranging from her newspaper column and daily press
conference to her travels around the country as a scout for her handicapped
husband. She treated the White House like a Grand Hotel, frequently inviting
friends and even people off the street to spend the night. But once they were
there, she left them to entertain themselves. Consequently the mansion became
seedy and dingy, according to West.
PAGE
8
The Washington Post, January 16, 1992
Caroline Harrison involved herself in White House housekeeping, and was
attacked by Washington society and the press for her actions. A chef she
dismissed for serving the dyspeptic president food that was too rich and a Swiss
steward she had fired went to the New York Sun with stories about the
president's table and infestations of rats and cockroaches in the mansion. One
of her husband's staff recounted in a memoir how, ill and a worrier, Harrison
cried out to an aide: "What have we ever done that we should be held up to
ridicule by newspapers, and the president be so cruelly attacked and even his
little helpless grandchildren be made fun of, for the country to laugh at!"
Bess Truman "kept her own books, went over the bills with a fine-toothed
comb, and wrote every check herself, according to West. She sent the servants
home on Saturday afternoons and turned down the beds herself.
One presidential wife showed her familiarity with the nuts and bolts of
housekeeping. A little boy visiting the presidential palace suddenly announced
to the First Lady, "This isn't your house.' When she asked why, he replied,
"Because I don't see your washing machine." Whereupon Pat Nixon took him up in
the elevator to the third floor, walked halfway down the red-carpeted hallway
and into the laundry rooms. As the story is related by Julie Nixon Eisenhower in
"Pat Nixon: The Untold Story," the boy later told his parents the big house did
indeed belong to the lady because he had seen her washing machine.
Nellie Taft, who got used to plenty of servants when her husband was military
governor of the Philippines, had a habit of running her finger along surfaces to
check for dust, according to Parks, and she decreed there would be no bald
butlers in the dining room. Mamie Eisenhower had a fetish about footprints on
the thick pile carpets. Before guests arrived, she instructed servants to
handbrush them, West remembered.
Since Abigail Adams arrived with eight servants, the White House has been
filled with servants, and how to pay for them has been an issue. No servants
were provided by the government in the Adamses' day, their letters lamented.
Later, a number of presidents born in the South, including James Madison and
Jefferson, had house slaves. However, by 1850 pressure from abolitionists
persuaded the Taylors to restrict the slaves to the family quarters, according
to an aide's letter.
Today, curator Scouten lists 96 people on the executive appropriation
payroll.
West recounts the story of the Trumans' inherited housekeeper, Henrietta
Nesbitt, who was already in disfavor for serving too many Brussels sprouts. It
seems that while butter was rationed during World War II, the president's wife
was asked to bring a stick as her contribution to a potluck lunch with her
bridge club. The housekeeper refused, saying that the White House's butter
ration was almost exhausted. After being assured by the chief usher that she was
within her rights to demand the butter, Bess Truman had the housekeeper fired.
All those beautiful rooms and all those servants make the White House a great
place to throw a party. For nearly two centuries the presidential mansion has
been the center of official entertainment, from levees (the 18th-century
equivalent of open houses) to state banquets, diplomatic receptions, glittering
balls and concerts.
PAGE
9
The Washington Post, January 16, 1992
Gone are the days when "Old Hickory" Jackson could open the doors of the
White House and invite the public to come in for cheese and crackers, as
reported in the Washington City Chronicle. In two hours a 1,400-pound cheddar
was consumed. (No word on the crackers but the smell and stains on the wooden
floor remained for several years.) Today's closest equivalent is the Texas-style
barbecue on the back lawn for hundreds of invited guests.
Presidential families have always sought ways to entertain on a more intimate
scale as well. In an era when formal French service required a waiter behind
every chair, Jefferson dismissed the domestics and had guests serve themselves
from a dumbwaiter, as the president wrote to a friend.
He and many of his successors held small dinners in the family dining room,
located on the state floor. A billiard room, built in 1869, was the primary
symbol of the hospitable good life in the administration of Ulysses S. Grant.
After dining alone at 5 p.m., the couple held "at homes" on weeknights at 9 p.m.
Friends came over for small talk and parlor games. Talk of politics and public
office was prohibited, an aide recalled in his memoirs.
Mamie Eisenhower entertained her canasta-playing friends upstairs. The
Hardings invited friends up to their bedroom or the library where they kept
bottles during Prohibition, as recounted in a Secret Service agent's book. They
rationalized that while it wasn't right (or legal) to serve liquor in the state
rooms, they might follow their personal standards in the private quarters.
Franklin Roosevelt had a movie theater built in the East Wing and a swimming
pool in the old West Wing for recreation. Eisenhower had a golf green
constructed and Bush put in a horseshoe pitch. Pony rides on the lawn have been
a perpetual favorite among children.
Some White House pets have a way of grabbing the spotlight. FDR's little
Scottie, Fala, was one of the most famous presidential animals. In his fireside
chats during the 1944 campaign, Roosevelt uttered the memorable sentence, "I
don't resent attacks, and my family doesn't resent attacks, but Fala does resent
them."
In addition to the usual dogs and cats, the presidential residence has also
harbored some unusual pets. The alligator of the Marquis de Lafayette parked in
the East Room when he visited John Quincy Adams, wrote Margaret Truman in "White
House Pets." Jefferson's mockingbird sang along when the president played his
violin. William McKinley's parrot squawked, "Look at all the pretty girls" and
whistled "Yankee Doodle." Silent Cal Coolidge's large mynah bird flew free on
the second floor, landed on people's shoulders and pinched their ears, wrote
Parks.
Pauline, the Holstein, was tethered on the front lawn to ensure a fresh milk
supply for Taft, and Woodrow Wilson's tobacco-chewing ram kept the front lawn
trimmed. Besides her pony Macaroni, Caroline Kennedy had a hamster that drowned
in the president's bathtub, and a gift rabbit named Zsa Zsa that reputedly had a
passion for beer drinking and trumpet playing. It was promptly dispatched to an
"orphanage."
Former White House residents have their own particular memories of their days
in the mansion. They remember the various rooms, events, good times and bad, the
maid service (and the Secret Service), the lack of privacy. A return visit
PAGE 10
The Washington Post, January 16, 1992
rekindles impressions it made on them and the impression they left on it.
When Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and her children returned for the first time
after the assassination to see the portraits of the late president and herself
as First Lady, the family spent several hours with the Nixons visiting old
haunts. President Nixon told Caroline, then 13, and John Kennedy Jr., 10, that
they would have good luck if they touched the Lincoln Bed. In her memoirs, Julie
Nixon Eisenhower describes how the former First Lady wrote the Nixons, "The day
I always dreaded turned out to be one of the most precious ones I have spent
with my children."
When Susan Ford Bales visited the family quarters for the first time, a
decade after her father had left office, she recalls marveling to herself, "I
used to live here."
"I couldn't believe how beautiful Nancy Reagan had made it," she said. "We
had thought it looked pretty good when we were there."
"When you leave the White House, life will never be the same," said Luci
Johnson. "It's left a permanent and precious impression on you and there's a
desperate desire for you to leave an impression on it
My sister may have
left a note to the future occupants. I left one for Tricia [Nixon]. I didn't
want her to learn about the White House the hard way.
"You desperately want to shake the shoulders of anyone in those halls and
say, 'Make the most of every moment,' because you close your eyes and it is
over."
Staff writer Donnie Radcliffe contributed to this article.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, THE WATERCOLOR "WASHINGTON CITY 1821, BY BARONESS HYDE DE
NEUVILLE, SHOWS IN 1820 THE NORTH FACADE OF THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE, AS IT WAS
CALLED AT THE TIME, WITH THE STATE AND TREASURY DEPARTMENTS (LEFT) AND THE WAR
AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS (RIGHT). IT IS AMONG THE ARTWORKS TO BE SHOWN IN THE
BICENTENNIAL EXHIBITION, "THE WHITE HOUSE 1792-1992: IMAGE IN ARCHITECTURE,"
OPENING JAN. 23 AT THE OCTAGON MUSEUM.; PHOTO; ILLUSTRATION, (STEVE MCCRACKEN) ;
PHOTO, NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY; PHOTO, CULVER SERVICES; PHOTO, WHITE HOUSE;
PHOTO, AP
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PAGE
11
41ST STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright 1984 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
April 1, 1984, Sunday, Final Edition
SECTION: Book World; Jonathan Yardley; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 1388 words
HEADLINE: FIRST LADY FROM PLAINS By Rosalynn Carter. Houghton Mifflin. 384 pp.
$17.95
BYLINE: JONATHAN YARDLEY
BODY:
ROSALYNN CARTER's autobiography is interesting throughout--considerably more
interesting and less self-serving than we have come to expect of White House
memoirs--but never more so than in its opening chapters. Though what comes later
is obviously of greater public consequence, what comes first is surprisingly
moving. Mrs. Carter recalls her thoughts at the hour of her husband's
inauguration: "Though we face extraordinary responsibilities and will live a
life we never even dreamed of, we are first and always Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter
from Plains, Georgia." This is not a political fabrication but the truth, which
doubtless explains why the chapters about her early years in Plans are the best
and most deeply felt in the book.
Eleanor Rosalynn Smith was born in Plains in August 1927; her father, Wilburn
Edgar Smith, "drove the school bus, worked in one of the mercantile stores in
town on weekends, owned an auto repair shop, and ran his farm on the outskirts
of town. He was a religious man, who believed in a stern and punitive God and
who would not permit his daughter to cry. Her mother, Frances Allethea Murray,
had three other children and managed to keep her household decently fed and
clothed through hard times. Those times became much harder when Rosalynn's
father died of leukemia; she was 13 years old, and she says that "my childhood
really ended at that moment. As the oldest child, she was the one whom her
mother "depended on to make all the right decisions." She "had to be very strong
or appear to be strong," but "underneath I felt very weak and vulnerable."
She remembers herself then as "ordinary," a girl who "wasn't a wallflower"
but whose "prom card wasn't always full, someone of limited self-confidence who
was "painfully shy, an introvert." It still seems to amaze her that when she was
17 years old and a freshman at Georgia Southwestern, a junior college, she
caught the eye and then the affection of Jimmy Carter, three years older and a
cadet at the glamorous Naval Academy: "I knew this was the person I would fall
in love with, the person I wanted to have fall in love with me, but I never
thought it would happen." When it actually did happen, she was "completely swept
off my feet."
The first thing Jimmy Carter did for her, after their marriage in 1946, was
to take her out of Plains--a move she had deeply desired for years but had
feared would never come because of her family obligations and limited funds. His
naval assignments took them from New England to Hawaii, and points in between.
As has happened to countless other children of American small towns, Rosalynn
Carter saw th world out there and fell in love with it; she "was more content
than I had been in years." When her husband's father died and he made the
PAGE
12
The Washington Post, April 1, 1984
now-famous decision to return to Plains and take over the family's peanut
business, his wife exploded. She describes her reaction far more vividly than
Carter himself ever has:
"I argued. I cried. I even screamed at him. I loved our life in the Navy and
the independence I had finally achieved. I knew it would be gone if we went home
to live in the same community with my mother and Jimmy's mother. Plains had too
many ghosts for me. And what about the children? Jack had been to kindergarten.
The others wouldn't have a chance because there was no kindergarten in Plains.
There was no swimming pool, no beach nearby. Surely we would never travel
anymore, and they would miss those adventures and experiences, too. But Jimmy
would have none of it. His mind was made up, and he is a very stubborn man. It
was the most serious argument of our marriage, and I wondered how or f I could
hide the way I felt or the tension between us from our families."
Yet it is characteristic of this resourceful and determined woman that, after
sulking for a few months, she went about making the most of the hand she had
been dealt. As her husband began to involve himself in community affairs, she
gradually joined him. She also began taking over the bookkeeping at the peanut
warehouse, and soon was conducting its financial affairs as well: "I knew more
about the books and more about the business on paper than Jimmy did. I knew
which parts of the business were profitable, which were not, how much money we
had, how much credit, and how much we owed on our debts." Not merely had she
learned all this, but she loved it; the apron strings of Plains, as it turned
out, were her liberation, providing her with a dignified and invaluable role at
which she clearly excelled. The business may have been nominally her husband's,
but in that--as in everything else--they had become "full partners."
The rest of the story is largely a matter of public record: Carter's gradual
emergence as a moderate voice in a community torn by racial animosities; his
election to Georgia's state legislature and, in 1970, to its governorship; the
formation of the cadre (Hamilton Jordan, Jody Powell, Charles Kirbo, et al.)
that dreamed up the long-shot presidential campaign of 1976; the improbable
success of that campaign; the Carter presidency, with its exhilarating high at
Camp David and its destructive low in Iran, and Mrs. Carter's own intense
involvement in the management of these and other high public matters; the bitter
race against Ted Kennedy for the 1980 Democratic nomination, and the subsequent
defeat by Ronald Reagan. Mrs. Carter goes dutifully through all of this, from
time to time offering revealing and/or unexpected insights.
Of these, unquestionably the most interesting have to do with her own role in
her husband's politic career. The common characterization of her as a "steel
magnolia" probably is more malicious than factual, but by her own account she is
a tough, even cold-blooded, politician. The shy girl from Plains grew into a
determined campaigner and a ruthless strategist. She describes herself as "much
more political than Jimmy and
more concerned about popularity and winning
re-election." She says she urged her husband "to postpone certain controversies,
such as the Panama Canal treaties or some of the Mideast decisions, until his
second term." She speaks repeatedly of her thirst for victory ("I don't like to
take a chance on getting beat. I always want to win!") and the anguish she feels
in defeat. When a campaign aide congratulated her husband for not seeming bitter
about his loss to Reagan, Mrs. Carter said: "I'm bitter enough for both of us."
And this is how she ends her book:
PAGE
13
The Washington Post, April 1, 1984
"I would be out there campaigning right now if Jimmy would run again. I miss
the world of politics. Nothing is more thrilling than the urgency of a
campaign--the planning, the strategy sessions, getting out among people you'd
never otherwise meet--and the tremendous energy it takes that makes a victory
ever so sweet and a loss so devastating. I'd like people to know that we were
right, that what Jimmy Carter was doing was best for our country, and that
people made a mistake by not voting for him. But when all is said and done, for
me, our loss at the polls is the biggest single reason I'd like to be back in
the White House. I don't like to lose."
It is in passages such as this, when Mrs. Carter allows her real passions to
surface, that First Lady From Plains is at its most eloquent and persuasive. In
others, such as her account of her trip to Latin America or her description of
social events at the White House, she seems to be going through the obligatory
motions and getting the necessary facts onto the record, though she discharges
this duty gracefully. There are, too, some matters that she scants or omits,
largely having to do with the various minor scandals involving friends or family
(Bert Lance, Hamilton Jordan, Peter Bourne, Billy Carter) with which her husband
had to contend; like most who have occupied the White House, she allows herself
upon leaving it to take a rather Olympian view of the proceedings. Yet she does
not herself emerge as a distant figure; to her enormous credit, she remains in
this book the girl from Plains who dreamed of seeing the great world out there,
who as an adult ended up seeing far more of it than she could possibly have
hoped for, and who has come through all of it with her feet quite firmly on the
ground. That is a rare and wholly admirable accomplishment.
GRAPHIC: Picture, Rosalynn Carter
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PAGE 14
DATE: JUNE 16, 1997
CLIENT:
LIBRARY: NEWS
FILE: NYT
YOUR SEARCH REQUEST IS:
ROSALYNN CARTER AND BORN
NUMBER OF STORIES FOUND WITH YOUR REQUEST THROUGH:
LEVEL 1.
33
PAGE
8
18TH STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright 1994 The Salt Lake Tribune
The Salt Lake Tribune
March 4, 1994, Friday
SECTION: Local; Pg. B1
LENGTH: 549 words
BYLINE: By Paul Rolly and JoAnn Jacobsen-Wells
BODY:
The Answers. Salt Laker Nicholas Curtis, a single dad of four, won our
"Women's History Test." He'll be honored Saturday at 1 p.m. at the YWCA's "March
for Women" for his 10 hours of research.
-- 1. First woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court: Belva
Lockwood.
-- 2. First Asian-Pacific woman elected to Congress: Patsy Takamoto Mink, of
Maui, Hawaii.
-- 3. Her refusal to go to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Ala., sparked
the civil rights movement: Rosa Parks.
-- 4. First woman to run for president: Victoria Woodhull of Homer, Ohio, in
1872.
-- 5. Nobel Peace Prize winner for work in Women's International League for
Peace and Freedom: Jane Addams.
-- 6. Latina who is a leading golfer on the LPGA Tour: Nancy Lopez.
-- 7. First woman postmaster in the colonies: Mary Goddard of Maryland.
-- 8. Famous black concert singer barred in 1939 from singing in Washington's
Constitutional Hall because of her race: Marion Anderson.
-- 9. She wrote first version of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923: Alice
Paul.
-- 10. Cree Indian woman who wrote and recorded songs focusing on Native
Americans: Buffy Sainte-Marie.
-- 11. Congresswoman who voted against the U.S. entry into WWI and WWII:
Jeanette Rankin of Montana.
-- 12. She was arrested and convicted of attempting to vote in the 1872
national election: Susan B. Anthony.
13. First Chinese American woman to hold a statewide office in the U.S.:
March Fong Eu, elected California's secretary of state in 1975.
-- 14. Woman journalist who traveled around the world in 72 days in 1890:
Nellie Bly.
PAGE
9
The Salt Lake Tribune, March 4, 1994
-- 15. She was rejected by 29 medical schools before being accepted and
became the first licensed woman doctor in the U.S.: Elizabeth Blackwell.
-- 16. She worked with Eli Whitney to invent the cotton gin: Catherine
Greene.
-- 17. First woman to swim the English Channel: Gertrude Ederle.
-- 18. First woman cabinet member: Frances Perkins became secretary of labor
in 1933.
-- 19. First woman to get a pilot's license, plus was the first woman to fly
around the world: Amelia Earhart.
-- 20. First American woman writer to receive the Nobel Prize for her book,
The Good Earth: Pearl Buck.
-- 21. First woman keynote speaker at a national political convention and the
first woman U.S. ambassador: Clare Boothe Luce.
-- 22. First woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize: Bertha von Suttner, for her
novels.
-- 23: First woman to hold title of "chef:" Julia Child.
-- 24. First woman administrator in the public school system: Carrie Chapman
Catt, as the superintendent of schools in Mason City, Iowa.
-- 25. Founder in 1853 of the first feminist newspaper, The Una: Paula Wright
Davis.
-- 26. First formally educated woman minister: Antoinete Brown Blackwell of
the Congregationalist Church in 1853.
Bonus question: First female local section-front columnist in The Tribune:
Donna Lou Morgan. (Everyone missed this.)
[] [] []
Winning Pothole: A R&W T-shirt goes to Ted Cundick for his "chuckhole of the
week," entry: the "monster" in the parking lot at Olympus High, 4055 S. 2300
East in Salt Lake. Writes Cundick: "Many sophomores were seen in the immediate
area of the pothole. Unfortunately, we haven't seen them since."
Keep the entries coming.
LOAD-DATE: April 14, 1995
PAGE
2
5TH STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright 1997 MGN Ltd.
The People
February 23, 1997, Sunday
SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 24, 25, 26
LENGTH: 4120 words
HEADLINE: 101 SILLY LAWS THAT PUT THE 'X' INTO SEX!;
YOU'VE HEARD THE PHRASE "THERE'S NO LAW AGAINST IT"? WELL, THERE MIGHT BE! IF
YOU'RE THINKING OF TAKING A GLOBAL SEX TOUR, DON'T GO WITHOUT MITCHELL SYMON'S
AMAZING GUIDE TO WHAT YOU CAN - AND CAN'T - DO, WITH WHOM AND WHERE
101 LAWS ON SEX IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
BYLINE: Mitchell Symons
BODY:
In Ecuador, a man is legally entitled to return a bride to her parents if he
decides she isn't a virgin.
In Uruguay, a man who catches his wife in bed with another man has the right
to slice off her nose and castrate her lover.
Not only is homosexuality banned in Albania but so too are two people of the
same sex banned from sharing a bed - even if they are heterosexual.
In Hungary, it is against the law to have sex with the light on - even the
light of a candle.
In Byelorussia, men can beat their wives before making love to them on the
basis that men who don't beat their wives don't really love them.
In Willowdale, Oregon, USA, men are forbidden to swear while they're making
love to their wives. The women can say whatever they like.
In Indonesia, men who are caught masturbating are liable to be beheaded.
In Guatemala, single women who are suspected of having had sex can be beaten
and spat upon in the street.
In Hong Kong, if a woman's husband cheats on her, she is allowed by law to
kill him (and his lover) - but only with her bare hands.
In the Ugandan capital of Kampala, if a woman's hand touches any man's
private parts (except her husband's), then the offending hand must be put in a
pot of boiling oil. A second offence means amputation.
In Oblong, Illinois, it is against the law to make love while fishing or
hunting on your wedding day.
In Liberty Corner, New Jersey, courting couples are not fined for "making
out" in a car - but they are if the car's horn goes off. That is considered to
be an "obnoxious activity".
PAGE
3
The People, February 23, 1997
When a Tasmanian woman's husband dies, she is required by law to wear her
dead husband's penis around her neck.
In Peru, there is an old law which prohibits single men from keeping a
female llama in their homes.
In China, women are not allowed to be naked in their hotel bedrooms - only
in their hotel bathrooms.
In Riga, Latvia, married couples are not allowed to have sex while arguing.
In Kuwait, it is illegal for a married man to look at another woman "in a
sensual manner".
It is also illegal in Kuwait for any man to look lustfully at a statue of a
woman or a female animal.
In Matagalpa, Nicaragua, men must divorce their wives if they catch them
committing adultery.
In Bhutan, younger brothers are not allowed to get married before their
older brothers.
In Tallin, Estonia, couples are not allowed to play chess in bed while
making love.
If a couple rent a hotel bedroom in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for just one
night, the twin beds have to be a minimum of two feet apart.
In Costa Rica, single women are banned from "any kind of lewd activities or
behaviour" with a man.
In the US State of Ohio, skating instructors are not allowed to have sex
with their female students.
In Jordan, husbands are legally obliged to make love to wives "at least once
every four months".
In Valencia, Venezuela, single men and women are not allowed to have sex
with anyone who is a known idiot.
In Burma, a widow is not allowed to have sex in the first year following her
husband's death. If she does, her late husband's relatives have the right to
kill her.
In rural China, a man is allowed to show his wife's naked body to other men
but if they see her feet, then he is obliged to kill them.
Fijian gold miners are given a statutory half-hour break at lunchtime in
which to make love to their wives.
In Honduras, a man can only be found guilty of adultery if he has a mistress
whom he flaunts.
PAGE
4
The People, February 23, 1997
In Lithuania, it is against the law to drink vodka when suffering from a
sexually transmitted disease.
In Sweden, it is illegal for a woman to pose naked for a photograph in a
passport photo booth.
Married couples living in the rice-growing regions of Java are obliged by
law to make love after dark in the rice fields to improve the rice crop.
In South-West Ethiopia, a man who "violates" a virgin is punished by having
his head (or, if the judge is feeling lenient, his hands) cut off.
Prostitution is illegal in the Yemen. Prostitutes can be - and are -
beheaded in public.
Adulterous women of the African Tupuri tribe have a brass ring fitted to
their necks which they have to wear for the rest of their lives.
In Sierra Leone, sodomy is illegal and punishable by burning to death at the
stake.
In Bengal, married Kurni women have to wear a ring on their arms. Their
husbands can divorce them simply by removing it.
In Rajasthan, India, women are legally obliged to eat carrot seeds as a form
of contraception.
In Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, men are obliged to pay for their wives
with a varying scale which sees them pay less for a widow or divorcee. However,
a woman who has had two husbands costs nothing.
In Cracow, Poland, sex with an animal is punishable by death - on a third
offence.
In Taiwan, it is permissible for a bridegroom's relative or friend to stand
in for him on his wedding night if he is unable to consummate the marriage.
In Saudi Arabia, the authorities are so keen to segregate the sexes that no
man is allowed even to enter a girls' school on punishment of death.
In remote parts of Malaysia, when a man dies, his eldest son inherits all
his father's wives (except the wife who is his mother).
In Caracas, Venezuela, newly-married couples are allowed to commit
adultery. But after one year of marriage they are legally obliged to remain
faithful to each other.
In Samoa, it is against the law for a woman to marry or have sex with an
uncircumcised man.
In Singapore, a man who cannot father a child may nominate another member of
his family to impregnate his wife. The resulting baby is deemed to have been
fathered by the wife's husband - even though he isn't the biological husband.
PAGE
5
The People, February 23, 1997
In Colombia, a cuckolded husband is allowed to shoot his wife if he finds
her in bed with her lover.
In Sienna, Italy, there is a law forbidding any woman named "Mary" from
working as a prostitute.
In Sverdlovsk in Russia, it's against the law to have sex on a tombstone
which is within 50 feet of the road.
In Missouri, USA, it is forbidden to have sexual intercourse with anyone
under the age of 16. But if the victim is 14 or 15, the offender will be freed
if they say they believed the victim was 16.
In Plovdiv, Bulgaria, male prostitution is against the law. Offenders are
declared "non-citizens" and can be sent to a labour camp.
In Nepal, adulterers can be drowned on a ducking stool.
In Bangkok, Thailand, a man who has sex with a female dog faces an even
bigger fine if the dog is on heat.
In Bandar Lampung, Indonesia, cohabitation by unmarried people of the
opposite sex is deemed to be "prostitution" and is punishable by a fine or even
imprisonment.
In China, dancing cheek-to-cheek is banned in public.
In Yerevan, Armenia, women are forbidden from standing naked in front of
their husbands with the lights on.
In the Central African Republic town of Banqui, pimps can be punished by
having molten lead poured down their throats.
In Georgetown, Guyana, nude bathing is prohibited and offenders could find
themselves coated in paint.
In the town of Ploiesti in Romania, couples are forbidden from having sex
during the day.
In Laos, where a woman's feet are regarded as erotic, husbands have the
right to punish their wives by refusing to allow them to wear shoes -
effectively keeping a decent woman housebound.
In Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, taxi drivers are not allowed to have sex
in their cabs during "working hours".
Adultery is against the law in Saudi Arabia and adulterers can be (and are)
stoned to death. In El Salvador, a wife who cheats on her husband faces a prison
sentence - and a
In El Salvador, a wife who cheats on her husband faces a prison sentence -
and a fine which is paid to the cuckolded husband.
In Russia, it is against the law for a couple to hug or kiss on a park
bench.
PAGE
6
The People, February 23, 1997
In Greece, any man who persuades a virgin to go to bed with him by proposing
marriage and afterwards refuses to marry her, is obliged to pay the girl
compensation.
Homosexuality is banned in Panama and offenders run the risk of castration.
In Gdansk, Poland, women participating in lesbian acts can expect to be sent
to a labour camp.
In rural Cambodia, a husband can kill his wife's lover if they have had sex
in his (the husband's) home.
If, however, the adultery took place outside the marital home, the husband
can't kill the lover but can kill his wife instead.
In Belize, the punishment for any man who has sex with or marries his aunt
is a severe flogging.
In Lebanon, a man is allowed to have sex with an animal - provided that the
animal is female. Sex with a male animal is punishable by death.
In Guinea-Bissau, a cuckolded husband is entitled to decapitate his wife's
lover. He can also force the man to cut off one of the cheating woman's fingers
or toes and eat it.
A man isn't allowed to stare, wink at or whistle at any woman - except his
wife - in Dresden, Germany.
In Guatemala, only married couples can have sex outdoors.
In Colorado, USA, adultery is only prohibited for the married person - if
one of the two parties is unmarried then that's OK.
In Skopje, Macedonia, a wife who cheats on her husband is taken out of town
and has her head shaved.
Homosexuality is prohibited by the Benin tribe in Africa. However, they do
allow mutual masturbation.
In Sofia, Bulgaria, it is considered "inappropriate" for a husband and wife
to enjoy making love.
In Kaunas in Lithuania, a man is allowed to banish his mother-in-law from
the home when he wants to make love to his wife.
In Indonesia, if a man has sex with another man's wife, he faces a flogging
and/or a jail sentence. He also faces long-term unemployment as employers cannot
engage a known adulterer.
In Heraklion, Crete, it is against the law to put graphic words or drawings
on a hotel bedroom wall.
In Turkey, if a man marries a woman who isn't a virgin, he must spend three
consecutive nights making love to her.
PAGE
7
The People, February 23, 1997
In Minsk, Byelorussia, husbands are not allowed to refuse their wives sex
after two sex-free weeks have passed.
In Luanda, Angola, prostitutes are obliged to bare their breasts at all
times.
In Warrenville, Connecticut, a man is banned from taking snuff while making
love to his wife without her permission.
In Parnu, Estonia, convicted rapists face long jail sentences - without
parole - and they must spend all their time in jail wearing leg-irons.
In Bhutan, adulterers are stoned to death.
In Montana, USA, any "deviate sexual relations between two persons is a
felony".
In Panevezys, Lithuania, a woman may only divorce her husband if she
discovers boils on his penis.
In Nepal, sex between unmarried people is forbidden and is punished by
flogging the offenders.
In some parts of the Philippines a groom-to-be must prove his manhood by
having sex with his future bride's sisters before their wedding.
In Brazil, the Semi Indians punish adulterous women by whipping them and
then exposing their wounds to stinging ants.
In some remote parts of Taiwan, a girl wishing to get married must "prove"
her virginity by stripping off in front of witnesses.
On Norwegian beaches where nude or topless (by women) sunbathing is
forbidden, people found sunbathing are obliged to put on the black plastic sacks
they're given or face arrest.
In Valparaiso, Chile, it is against the law for a man to marry any woman who
has ever committed adultery.
In Guam, female virgins are not allowed to marry and so they pay special men
to rid them of their virginity.
In Equatorial Guinea, a man who has sex with another man's wife is executed
by drowning.
In Georgia, USA, "it is a misdemeanor for an unmarried person to voluntarily
engage in sexual intercourse with another person".
In Minnesota, fornication between a man and a single woman resulted in a
misdemeanor action as recently as 1967.
In Wroclaw, Poland, a wife whose husband has cheated on her is allowed to
beat her husband's lover - to death if she chooses - with a club.
PAGE
8
The People, February 23, 1997
GRAPHIC: THAT'S FISHY: Angling for love in Illinois (11) ii BODY BEAUTIFUL: But
her feet could prove fatal in China (28) ii UNKIND CUT: Some Samoan men live on a
knife-edge (46) ii ANIMAL HARM: Beastly activities can kill in Poland (41) ;; OLD
PAL'S ACT: But the bride might not be too happy in Taiwan (42)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: February 25, 1997
PAGE
2
2ND STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
February 15, 1997, Saturday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section 1; Page 12; Column 3; National Desk
LENGTH: 349 words
HEADLINE: Clinton Urges Plan to Speed Adoptions
BYLINE: AP
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Feb. 14
BODY:
Fretting about children who "languish forever in foster care,' President
Clinton today proposed bonus payments for states that increase their adoption
rates.
The proposal was part of a campaign intended in five years to double the rate
of adoptions, which last year totaled only 20,000 of the 450,000 children the
White House said were in foster care in 1995.
Surrounded by adopted children, their parents and strings of valentine
hearts, the President said, "Putting this plan into action today will mean that
we are insuring that no child will languish forever in foster care when loving
families are out there -- ready, willing and able to open their hearts and their
"
Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has for years supported the cause of foster
children, added, "No child should grow up in foster care."
The Clintons accepted the Department of Health and Human Services' goal of
placing 54,000 children into new homes in five years by reducing bureaucratic
barriers to adoption.
Among the department's recommendations are these:
*Legislation to give states Federal money for every child adopted over the
total the state recorded in the previous year. Larger bonuses would be given
when children with special needs find homes. The White House did not provide
further details, but Mr. Clinton said savings from foster care costs would pay
for the bonuses.
*A total of $10 million for technical assistance and grants for state
agencies, courts and communities to help find ways to recruit parents and place
children.
*Legislation requiring a court hearing no later than 12 months after a child
enters the foster care system, instead of the current 18 months before a
hearing.
A bipartisan plan to be introduced in the House would take a similar approach
t
eeding adoption hearings.
PAGE
3
The New York Times, February 15, 1997
Earlier this year a law took effect allowing families with incomes below
000 to receive a tax credit of up to $5,000 if they adopt a child. People
adopt hard-to-place children, like those who are minorities, older, disabled
or have siblings, are eligible for a $6,000 credit.
GRAPHIC: Photo: President Clinton, with his wife, Hillary, and adopted children
and their parents looking on, yesterday proposed a plan to increase adoptions as
Edward Taubert, 6, left, played in a valentine-decorated Oval Office. (Agence
Frnce-Presse)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: February 15, 1997
PAGE
4
3RD STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
December 15, 1996, Sunday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section 1; Page 34; Column 5; National Desk
LENGTH: 620 words
HEADLINE: President Tells Government To Promote More Adoptions
BYLINE: By ALISON MITCHELL
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Dec. 14
BODY:
President Clinton today directed the Federal Government to take steps to
double the number of children moved from foster care to adoption over the next
six years.
He announced the initiative in his weekly radio address, and was joined on
the air by his wife, Hillary, by adoptive families and by children hoping for a
permanent home.
"I can think of no better way to fulfill the promise of this season than to
bring a child into a family, and a family to a child," Mr. Clinton said.
This drive to increase adoption continues the family-centered themes that he
ted throughout his election campaign, and it is not likely to be
ntious. House Republicans made an adoption tax-credit a plank in their
Contract With America campaign agenda in 1994. Earlier this year, Mr. Clinton
signed Republican-initiated legislation that gave a tax credit of $5,000 to
families adopting children and made it easier for parents to adopt children of a
different race.
There are now 450,000 children in the nation's foster-care system, which is
run by the states with Federal aid and supervision. Of those children, 100,000
are considered to have no parent to return to and are ready to be placed in a
permanent new home. But only 27,000 of those children a year are moved from
foster care to adoption, officials say.
Mr. Clinton today told the Department of Health and Human Services to report
to him in 60 days on steps that can be taken to insure that 54,000 foster
children a year are adopted by the year 2002. He said the department should
consider possible changes in Federal laws and regulations.
Officials said that among steps the department is examining, the Federal
Government would work with states to set specific targets for adoptions. In
return, the Government would provide a new financial incentive per child for
states to increase the number of adoptions from the public welfare system.
The officials said that as part of the budget plan he will announce in
February, Mr. Clinton would propose financial assistance to states for
developing strategies to promote the adoption of difficult-to-place children who
h
been languishing in the foster care system and for studying what barriers
PAGE
5
The New York Times, December 15, 1996
block states from finding permanent homes for children.
elissa T. Skolfield, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human
Services, said the amount of financial assistance that would be proposed for the
states had not yet been determined. And although she said the financial
incentive to states for each child adopted had not yet been settled on, the
action was not expected to require new Federal funds because increased
adoptions would reduce foster care spending.
Mr. Clinton today also called for a Government-wide public relations campaign
to make Americans aware of adoption opportunities. As if beginning that campaign
themselves, the Clintons asked the parents and children accompanying them to
tell their stories on the air.
"My name is Daniel, said one 13-year old boy from a local foster care
program, who was not further identified. "And I've been waiting for a family for
a long time. And hopefully in a short amount of time I will probably get what
I'm looking for in a family. My brother has already been adopted, and hopefully
I'll get adopted by his family at one point of time."
Mrs. Clinton has been a strong proponent of adoption, even telling Time
magazine earlier this year that she and her husband might consider an adoption
because they would love to have another child. White House officials said the
Clintons had decided to postpone any decision on an adoption until after the
President is out of office because he would not have the time to devote to a new
child.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DATE: December 16, 1996