CCNGRES l T - - . . / , - "" , /'( , 1 , ., I ' ( If ' 1ft..01e was• lot of bustl1ng·al12t fijt■y - on Capitol Hill in Washington. You ali-=lmow The reason - the opening of a new session of Congress. The Eighty- SeventY,ial(]r111, Newly elected membera arrived ulpt '4-J..f.t.tA,~ and early - anxiou.a for their first experience -td- •klDI ' /'-- J.ua - fwp 1tl9 Ulllld ltate■ • Old hands who have been through it all betore - not quite ao excited. Settling back into their ra■111ar routine- starting to work out thelr party strategy for the weeka to coae. Today heads cOllld be 1een together - 1n the cloak rooaa. Contidentlal talka between old alllea - and old opponents too. The r•111ar phraaea were repeated again and again - phraaea like "natural resources, toret.gn ald, tuea, the wheat surplus, the tlllbuater." "1d ao on. ~ / ~ S111111lng up - the pact lsaues racing thla country i n • ) era or domestic tenalon and cold war. Today's activity - mostly preliminary. Carried on in an atmosphere or comparative cordiality - that no one OONORESS - 2 expects to l a s t ~ long. As soon as this session settles down to serious work - the legislative battles will begin to ✓~ ~~ take shape. ~ u.. --ta --~n aetent-ta.ta-put--:t~ - Congress will show how a legislature goes about Mklng lan tor a great democracy. PERSOMALITIF.S FOLLOW COMGRESS Most of today's events fell into the pattern~ a expected: - v1ce President Nixon, on hand to preside over the Senate~ administered the oath to Lyndon Johnson of Teus. Senator Johnson, then resigning his a seat -- to become our new Vice President on January Twentieth. Why did Johnson wait until the last minute - before resigning? He wanted to give his staff - a few weeks' extra pay for Senate work. Succeeding the tall Texan dll aa Democratic leader in the Senate - Mike Mansfield of Montana. Moving into Manat1eld 1 s old spot or party whlp - Hubert Huaphrey ' of M1nneaota. '!be only surprise ln thls gue of mualoal chairs - a decision by the Dellocrata that Johnlon •Y still preside at party meetings, whenever Mansfield asks hlm to do so. Thia innovation, suggested by - Mansfield himself. PERSONALITIES FOLLOW CONGRESS - 2 What about the Senate Republicans? Oh, they re-elected thelr old Senate leadership-unanimously. O OP leader - Dirksen of Illinois. O OP whlp - luchel or California. They'll be directing the minority party - ln this Congress. Over in the House, tough old Su Rayburn of )Vl I Texas - returna aa speaker. Sam has been ln the Houae for forty-eight years - and he'll be - seventy-nine on Friday. But on Capitol Hlll they say he's still u ~~ baa shrewd • strateglat '";( as the Houa~ever had. Rayburn'• opposite nwaber ls Halleck of Indiana - only alxty. Halleck, who promlaea to work with Rayburn on bl-partisan laaues - and .,oppose hl■, whenever the Republicans think the D9110crata are wrong. LAOS ~ 1ft Laos ttaelt - more information about the battle of Xlen lhouang. Premier Boun Oum repeats that Co•untat invaders are pouring in from Viet Nu - to Joln the battle. The Laottan Premier, terming this - " massive intervention by the Reda. " In Bangkok, 'ftlalland, the Seato Nations - aeett.ng - ln •••• another e■e-sency session) t111J atlll ~ - ~ ~ ~ agne,,C ■liAL It.ii tut se Red tnterventlon tn Lao■• J!tie'1;- 1t11• not au.re - abo11t the •ze ot the intervention. or whether Laos needs military aid - rlght now. In London, th•/PL~there 1 1 no f11'11 evidence that the C01111unlata are croaalng into Laoa by the regiment. And Prl• Nlnlater MacMillan has not retreated troa hla plan to solve this Laotian criala - by diplomacy. LAOS - 2 Washington still goes along wtth - the Laotian Premier. Today President Eisenhower received intelligence force reports - revealing an elaborate m conspiracy toAf••••• a COlllluniat governaent on Laos. Backed by weapons flown lnto Laos - from Ruaala . and Red China. :Tt ) 15' l It R G /£/) State DepartMnt spokesman ~mo1AMh told tf t1 a newa conference - that a Soviet alr llrt la shuttling tn and out or Laos. He added, "thla 11 no clrcuutantlal evidence - thla ta factual." BELGIUM Today's violence 1n Belgium - erupted lt right on schedule. The demonstrators, waiting for the New Year's holiday to end - then putting an end to the peace and quiet. Hardest hit by the latest rioting - Brussels, where so ■ e Fifteen •!llatr~na. thousand strikers fought a pitched battle with the police. But there - were casualties today in many other Belgian cities - Antwerp, Brugea, Liege, Ghent. Premier Eyakena claim• to have the situation - . , under control. Ina1atr he won't withdraw hia auterlty •uurea - becaue ot what he tel'III, "co.-.uniat lnaplred civil dlaorder." CUBA Experts on Castro's C uba are more sure than ever - that the bearded dictator wants to force us to break diplomatic relations. His latest anti-American move - an order that ■ight make it impossible fa for ua to maintain our &nbaasy 1n Havana. to have a staff - of precisely eleven. take care of a ten-story building. ~ Castro aaya ••,<re Th . t uny - to Until today, we eaployed dozens of people - including many Cubans. The Marine Honor Guard alone - had five •••rs. Now Castro tells our Havana Bmbasay - ake do with eleven. SPY A dispatch from New Delhi states that a Soviet spy ring - has Just been cracked. Three Russians, attached to the Soviet &nbaasy in the Indian capital - caught red-handed, gathering top secret information. Eight Indians - accused of passing the lnfol'lllatlon to . t . 4-it """ the■• The Indians J in Jail tonight. !he Ruaalana , .1 on thelr way home, ~Y lnvltatlon of Jawarharlal Nehru. TRAFFIC The New Year's death toll on our highways comes to - three hundred and forty. Equalling the prediction - of the National Safety CoW'lcil. Paradoxically, thla waa also - the aareat New Year's on record. Many - aore Americans were out drtv1.ng - so we chalked up a smaller , - ·tt ,. J- 1,,1'._ percentage of fatalities. Fewer deaths - compared to the number or cara on the road. BASEBALL : dispatch from Toulouse, France, doesn't seem •er, important - at first glance. We are told that a recluse named Jacques Fontaine - died yesterday at the age of fifty-five. His meagre effects - sorted out today. A story like dozens of others - that come in over the news wires. Ah, but Jacques Fontaine of ToUlowse left one item - worth nothlr11. An American baseball - more than thirty years old. What's so interesting about that? Well. across the horsehide ln faded ink ls written thls legend - "Babe Ruth, Nineteen Twenty Eight." Here's the story. In Nineteen Twenty Eight Jacques was aboard a French warship - paying a courtesy call ln New York harbor. Mayor Jl•Y Walker 1 . nvite d tr.e creK to a baseball game - at Yankee Stadium. The Frenchmen were there when the mighty bamb1no smashed a homer - into the stands. 'ffle ball, retrieved by young Jacques Fontaine BASEBALL - 2 llho asked the Yankees' hOM-run a chuplon to autograph lt tor hl■• 'ftle Babe dld - and that particular bueball traveled to Prance 1n the gear of a French aallor. COlll)letely forgotten, until lt bobbed up l'l the nen agatn today - oyer thirty yeara later. A curtoua connection - between Nineteen Twenty- light and llneteen Sixty one. BetWHn YlllkH Stadlllll tn the Bronx - and Toulouae 1n the South or PNnoe. Blt-n Babe Ruth - and Jacque, Pontatne. l ~ - ~ T ~ - i o , Y ~ - • How would you like to buck odds of - twenty-six thousand to one? Uassachu1ett1 Well, Ludwig Ahlberg of Sprin1field,•••••••*•■lls made Just such a bit - and won. ln ineteen Four, when Ahlberg was forty years old - he took out an insurance policy. The company ■ ortality rates showed that - he'4 ne•er ll•• to be ninety-eev~n - the odd1 against it - twenty six tho•aaat i to one. The insurance officials who drew up the ■ortality table - they aren't around any ■ore. Bat Ludwig Ahlberg - ia. ~•lebrating his ninety-av•nth birthda, - today - celebratia1 with hi• own insurance.