- Email: [email protected]
Washington Report
Report from the Washington Office
CABINET MEMBERS LAIRD AND FINCH
While- awaiting President Nixon's announcement of his cabinet, observers from the dental field speculated most widely, for obvious reasons, about the post of Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. But when the unveiling came in mid-December, these observers found their attention split between two cabinet nominees: Lieutenant Gov ernor Robert H. Finch and Representa tive Melvin R. Laird. The reasons, in each case, were quite different. With regard to Mr. Finch, it was a question of how this impressive, po litically expert confidante of the new President would move in an area of gov ernment with which he was relatively
Secretary Laird keynoted the 1968 National Dental Health Conference and is seen here on that occasion being congratulated by Association President McGuirl and Executive Director Hillenbrand.
unfamiliar: what his criteria and his priorities would be. In the case of Mr. Laird, on the other hand, there was no unfamiliarity. There was, instead, a mixed feeling of pleasure- and regret: Pleasure that one of dentistry's best and most knowledge able friends should be chosen as the new Secretary of Defense and regret that he would, of necessity, be moving away from his intimate involvement in health affairs of the past decade, dur ing which he has shown such sympathetic interest in dental matters. Began in 1952 Mr. Laird first came to the House of Representatives in 1952, the year of General Eisenhower's first election. From the inception of his congressional career, his Appropriations Committee assignments brought him directly into questions of defense and health expend itures. His expertise in the first of these areas was undoubtedly a major con sideration in awarding him his present position, but it was the warmth and in telligence of his concern with health that made him so well known and deeply respected by the dental profession. As Mr. Laird himself has said on many occasions, it was his friendship with the late John E. Fogarty that helped precipitate his health activities. Though their philosophies of government diverged substantially at times, their working relationship and mutual regard were strengthened by a striking simi larity of approach in making the dif ficult judgments necessary in appor tioning health expenditures. Activist Approach Both took an activist approach to their responsibilities, both were open to new information or approaches and quick to grasp the significance in what was happening during the health revo lution of the Fifties and Sixties. Neither spared themselves in working to gain a solid, unquestioned mastery of the complex questions involved. And Mr. Laird, fortunately for dentistry, took an especially active interest in matters of dental health, education and research. No doubt none
of the dozen or more HEW appropriations bills that have come to the floor of the House during the time of Mr. Laird's involvement were tailored precisely as he might have liked. But during his House years, dentistry has had the kind of attention that permitted it to ex tend its resources and fulfill its com mitments. Without his tough-minded objective approach, much less progress would have been made. Dentistry and the Pentagon Dentistry will not entirely lose touch with him as he journeys to the Pentagon. He retains, first of all, the honorary membership in the Associ ation that he received in 1965. And, of course, there are matters that will now come under his administrative sway that are of interest to dentistry. For some time, the Association, together with other health groups, has been urging the Defense Department office of health affairs to be restored to the Assistant Secretary level that it de servedly had during the Eisenhower years. Observers are hopeful, as well, that, under Mr. Laird's leadership, there will be a restoration of the parity that has traditionally existed between the medical and dental corps of the armed services, a parity that has begun to unjustifiably erode in recent years because of Pentagon mistakes in policy with respect to compensation and promotion opportunities for career den tal officers. Finch and HEW At the time of writing, the new HEW Secretary had not yet announced who his chief deputies will be. Their names will undoubtedly cast some light on the future policies of the 43-year-old Cal ifornian who many expect will be Presi dent Nixon's chief advisor and adminis trator of domestic matters. Born in Arizona, Finch was taken soon after to California. After World War II service with the Marines, he at tended Occidental College and then the University of Southern California's law school, from which he graduated in 1951.
He first met Mr. Nixon in 1946, at the very beginning of the new Presi dent's political career. In both 1952 and 1954 Mr. Finch unsuccessfully sought a House seat for himself. He was the then Vice-President Nixon's chief aide from 1958 to 1960 and his campaign director both for the Presi dential election of 1960 and the guber natorial attempt in 1962. A chief advisor to Senator George Murphy in 1964, Mr. Finch won his first and only elective position as lieuten ant governor of California in 1966, with a vote margin exceeding even that of Ronald Reagen. Practical Humanitarian In the words of one Washington ob server, Robert H. Finch has the repu tation of being a combination of mas ter politician and practical humani tarian. According to Bert Clingston, California's deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Finch is a "strong partisan? he'll never stop being that. But when it comes to nonpartisan issues, his heart's in the right place." In the job he has been given, political mastery, practical humanitarianism and a heart in the right place will all prove use ful and probably essential.
HEW Secretary Finch is seen here as he addressed the opening meetof the Southern California Dental Association's 1967 annual session. Shown with Mr. Finch, who was Cal ifornia's Lieutenant Governor, is Robert L. Borland, II (left) and William H. Hanford.
CABINET MEMBERS LAIRD AND FINCH
While- awaiting President Nixon's announcement of his cabinet, observers from the dental field speculated most widely, for obvious reasons, about the post of Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. But when the unveiling came in mid-December, these observers found their attention split between two cabinet nominees: Lieutenant Gov ernor Robert H. Finch and Representa tive Melvin R. Laird. The reasons, in each case, were quite different. With regard to Mr. Finch, it was a question of how this impressive, po litically expert confidante of the new President would move in an area of gov ernment with which he was relatively
Secretary Laird keynoted the 1968 National Dental Health Conference and is seen here on that occasion being congratulated by Association President McGuirl and Executive Director Hillenbrand.
unfamiliar: what his criteria and his priorities would be. In the case of Mr. Laird, on the other hand, there was no unfamiliarity. There was, instead, a mixed feeling of pleasure- and regret: Pleasure that one of dentistry's best and most knowledge able friends should be chosen as the new Secretary of Defense and regret that he would, of necessity, be moving away from his intimate involvement in health affairs of the past decade, dur ing which he has shown such sympathetic interest in dental matters. Began in 1952 Mr. Laird first came to the House of Representatives in 1952, the year of General Eisenhower's first election. From the inception of his congressional career, his Appropriations Committee assignments brought him directly into questions of defense and health expend itures. His expertise in the first of these areas was undoubtedly a major con sideration in awarding him his present position, but it was the warmth and in telligence of his concern with health that made him so well known and deeply respected by the dental profession. As Mr. Laird himself has said on many occasions, it was his friendship with the late John E. Fogarty that helped precipitate his health activities. Though their philosophies of government diverged substantially at times, their working relationship and mutual regard were strengthened by a striking simi larity of approach in making the dif ficult judgments necessary in appor tioning health expenditures. Activist Approach Both took an activist approach to their responsibilities, both were open to new information or approaches and quick to grasp the significance in what was happening during the health revo lution of the Fifties and Sixties. Neither spared themselves in working to gain a solid, unquestioned mastery of the complex questions involved. And Mr. Laird, fortunately for dentistry, took an especially active interest in matters of dental health, education and research. No doubt none
of the dozen or more HEW appropriations bills that have come to the floor of the House during the time of Mr. Laird's involvement were tailored precisely as he might have liked. But during his House years, dentistry has had the kind of attention that permitted it to ex tend its resources and fulfill its com mitments. Without his tough-minded objective approach, much less progress would have been made. Dentistry and the Pentagon Dentistry will not entirely lose touch with him as he journeys to the Pentagon. He retains, first of all, the honorary membership in the Associ ation that he received in 1965. And, of course, there are matters that will now come under his administrative sway that are of interest to dentistry. For some time, the Association, together with other health groups, has been urging the Defense Department office of health affairs to be restored to the Assistant Secretary level that it de servedly had during the Eisenhower years. Observers are hopeful, as well, that, under Mr. Laird's leadership, there will be a restoration of the parity that has traditionally existed between the medical and dental corps of the armed services, a parity that has begun to unjustifiably erode in recent years because of Pentagon mistakes in policy with respect to compensation and promotion opportunities for career den tal officers. Finch and HEW At the time of writing, the new HEW Secretary had not yet announced who his chief deputies will be. Their names will undoubtedly cast some light on the future policies of the 43-year-old Cal ifornian who many expect will be Presi dent Nixon's chief advisor and adminis trator of domestic matters. Born in Arizona, Finch was taken soon after to California. After World War II service with the Marines, he at tended Occidental College and then the University of Southern California's law school, from which he graduated in 1951.
He first met Mr. Nixon in 1946, at the very beginning of the new Presi dent's political career. In both 1952 and 1954 Mr. Finch unsuccessfully sought a House seat for himself. He was the then Vice-President Nixon's chief aide from 1958 to 1960 and his campaign director both for the Presi dential election of 1960 and the guber natorial attempt in 1962. A chief advisor to Senator George Murphy in 1964, Mr. Finch won his first and only elective position as lieuten ant governor of California in 1966, with a vote margin exceeding even that of Ronald Reagen. Practical Humanitarian In the words of one Washington ob server, Robert H. Finch has the repu tation of being a combination of mas ter politician and practical humani tarian. According to Bert Clingston, California's deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Finch is a "strong partisan? he'll never stop being that. But when it comes to nonpartisan issues, his heart's in the right place." In the job he has been given, political mastery, practical humanitarianism and a heart in the right place will all prove use ful and probably essential.
HEW Secretary Finch is seen here as he addressed the opening meetof the Southern California Dental Association's 1967 annual session. Shown with Mr. Finch, who was Cal ifornia's Lieutenant Governor, is Robert L. Borland, II (left) and William H. Hanford.