Press Lauds President Johnson’s Appointment of Goldberg

The New York press, as the press in Washington and largely throughout the rest of the country, was highly laudatory today in editorials praising President Johnson for his appointment of Supreme Court Justice. Arthur J. Goldberg as the chief United States Ambassador to the United Nations and successor to the late Adlai E. Stevenson. The Times stated that “the more one ponders this selection, the more logical, even the more brilliant, it appears.” Pointing to Mr. Goldberg’s birth into an immigrant Jewish family in Chicago, the Times declared; “Justice Goldberg, who rose from the slums of Chicago to his present national and international eminence, now goes to the United Nations as spokesman for all Americans. He personifies the continuing opportunity afforded by American democracy to its ablest sons.”

The Herald Tribune, calling the appointment “an inspired choice,” referred to Justice Goldberg as a “highly articulate man of exceptional brilliance; a quick, incisive debater” and as a man who “also proved himself as highly skilled at the difficult task of finding that elusive, common ground on which seemingly irreconcilable differences can be compromised without sacrifice of essential principles.”

The World Telegram and Sun stated that Justice Goldberg “will bring to the United Nations a fresh and keen intelligence at a time when the organization desperately needs new ideas,” stating that he “is a skilled, behind-the-scenes negotiator.” This newspaper’s editorial also referred to the fact that he was the son “of Jewish immigrants, and one who rose from poverty to high position.”

The New York Post expressed its belief that Adlai Stevenson “would have welcomed the appointment,” stating that the choice shows President Johnson wishes to continue the Stevenson tradition.” It noted Justice Goldberg’s reputation in the field of conciliation. “Good Choice,” proclaimed an editorial in the New York Journal-American, saying Mr. Goldberg has “a brilliant mind,” is “a good speaker” and one whom “we believe adequately equipped to talk to the Communists.”