Lindsay Denounces Force in Cities, Calls for Ways to 'Relieve Tensions'

Mayor John V. Lindsay of New York told a Sanders Theatre audience Saturday that "peace cannot be imposed on our cities by force of arms."

Lindsay said that "vague calls for national reconciliation or a searching of men's hearts and minds" in response to the problems described in the recent Riot Commission Report "will not relieve the tensions in American cities."

A crowd of 1200 saw Lindsay in Sanders and an additional 500 heard the New York Republican over a loudspeaker from another section of Memorial Hall. An additional 250 were turned away at the door. After his speech, Lindsay was named Man of the Year of the Harvard Republican Club, which sponsored the address.

Lindsay, who has been speaking irregularly at college campuses around the country, also called for a fresh approach in foreign policy. "The inconsistencies and pressures of the Vietnam situation," the Mayor said, "demand some new thinking on all our traditional ideas on foreign policy."

Lindsay called the student political activity prior to the New Hampshire and Wisconsin primaries--which, he said, "has stunned all the pros"--a "source of political ferment which is changing the course of history." Lindsay urged students to "demand more than what you have gotten until America comes home again."

Lindsay said that the problems of the cities will only be solved by "attacking the root causes." These problems, he said, are "beyond the means of any single person to correct."

"Let us measure each proposal for America," Lindsay continued, "not by its appeal but by its consequences. Let us place it on the streets and study its impact."

Lindsay stated that legislative bodies are "rarely ahead of the people. In fact, they usually lag."

"But this is a time when congressional leadership must take charge and take some chances," he said. "This is no time for congressmen to be running home and putting their fingers to the wind of public opinion."

Lindsay said he favored a guaranteed annual income which would supplement the income of those below a minimum poverty level while creating an incentive for self-improvement. Lindsay called the present system of welfare "bankrupt."

At a press conference in Holmes Hall at the Law School before his speech, Lindsay said he hoped New York's Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller would be drafted as the Republican Presidential nominee. Asked if he himself would refuse to serve if elected, Lindsay said, "no man wishes to insult the office by making silly statements about it."

The New York Mayor was interrupted twice by applause during his speech, both times after he had criticized this country's policy in Vietnam. In regard to the current discussions about peace talks, Lindsay said, in answer to a question after his speech, that it is "most unwise for the United States to have the look of being in a quibble over a site for peace talks."

The speech was slightly marred by a man in his twenties who laughed loudly and started to repeat some of Lindsay's words. The man, who identified himself as a non-student from Philadelphia, was asked to leave. Bystanders said they felt the man was "crazy" and not a political heckler.