European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 01, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse A bit of a curmudgeon1 by Kay Bartlett associated press Page 4 h e s Reading a new translation of the Iliad writing a new Book called the jail must go giving As Many As three lectures in a weekend actively pursuing his interests in the american Indian poetry Homes for abandoned children and whatever else he finds fascinating from earthworms to the dead sea scrolls. Or. Karl Menninger once the guiding Genius of the Menninger foundation is 84 years old and he has projects mapped out that would keep any Man Busy for the next 100 years. He recently underwent surgery for removal of a brain tumor and fought Back with the help of biofeedback train ing pioneered in part at the institution he his father and his brother envisioned and built in Topeka Kan. He says he s slowed Down a bit i Don t get As much done in an hour but it s hard to notice. This Man who tilted against assorted ills of society Long before some became fashionable also is a Man who frequently scared the Daylight out of coworkers. His offi Cial biography in fact uses the word cantankerous and his Best friends say he s not easy. Brilliant challenging warm hearted a feeder of human beings. But easy no. They like to Tell the Story of How or. Karl once kept an audience waiting for half an hour to hear him speak because someone was in the parking space assigned to him. Or. Karl stormed and raged until the culprit was found the car moved and or. Karl s car properly parked. Menninger s celebrated temper seems just one form of his explosive energies most of which he has devoted to molding one of the country s most famous psychiatric institutions and research facilities. He diagnosed Many of the nation s trouble spots conservation civil rights the conditions of jails and mental institutions Long before these subjects become big issues. Karl has always had a sixth sense for society s next sore Point says his wife of 35 years Jeanetta Lyle men Ninger. Marrying her says or. Karl was the smart est thing i Ever through his Many books and lectures he helped convince a sceptical America of the value of psychiatry. He taught that the mentally ill could be cured he preached preventive psychiatry and demanded that psychiatrists drop fancy labels like schizophrenia and Tell him How the patient was behaving specifying the aberrations. He seems genuinely surprised when he is told that some people find him frightening. Why would anyone be afraid of me he roars. Then he thinks for a moment and answers softly that hurts me. I do speak a Little loudly and i am next he says i guess i. Have always been a bit of a curmudgeon but i like things done yet this reputed Ruffian keeps a listed Telephone number and without encouraging them will take late night Calls from troubled people who Are contemplating suicide Comfort them suggest where they can get help. The Man who can name his own fee for a session will expend from the wealth of his experience to a stranger. Or. Karl still is As dogmatic As Ever. Just mention one of his pet projects like Reform of the penal system and he s off emphatically and jails have to go the dungeons did the mad houses did the penthouses did the asylums did. Florence Nightingale pulled the hospitals out of the muck Doro Thea Dix pulled the asylums out of the muck and noisome woman will come along and pull the jails out of the jail is a horrible institution manned by amateurs and he proposes that women run the jails. They have ways of handling men that most me know nothing about. There s a Little Winso meness and some gentleness in it. Men say women can handle it they re too sensitive. Nonsense. Women know More than most men forgot. It s pure male chauvinism. The time will come when women guards will be As common As nurses in the hospitals. At an age where most men have slowed Down to a walk or. Karl White haired and tall is in his office by 8 30 each morning and keeps a staff of four Busy. The first thing he does is ship off a Ream of articles to staff Mem the stars and stripes Bers and friends material he s read the night before that he thinks they 11 Benefit from. He s a Man who can edit a paper with his Green Felt tip pen while carrying on an intense conversation. Or. Karl does t waste much time. Hell eat lunch at his desk take a half hour Nap and then i m Good till four in the he enjoys a drink before dinner watches the news then often walks with his poodle in his Garden filled with Flowers and Trees both exotic and common. He then reads or works for another two hours until bedtime around 10. Mrs. Verne Home his close Friend and archivist says. He shepherds his time now. He considers it now a very special gift. He feels it s been Given to him for a Pur Menninger s friends though used to his resiliency were amazed at his speedy recovery from brain surgery. It left the right Side of his face sagging and his speech slurred. Through biofeedback and sheer willpower he has almost completely restored his face and his speech is Back to Normal. He works three times a week with his biofeedback Trainer to shape up a partially drooped eyelid and lip. The Menninger clinic was established in 1919 by or. Karl s father or. Charles Menninger. It was a general medical facility in the earliest Days but by 1925 the emphasis was on treatment of mental illness. Mental institutions met with Public uneasiness in those Days especially in the nation s heartland and so or. Karl a dynamic speaker was chosen to address groups around town and beyond to make friends. One of his first speeches was before a women s group Back in 1922. The subject syphilis. Karl Menninger at 84 there Are so Many wonderful things in life i shall hate to depart the ladies cringed. But it was something on his mind. He saw the devastating effects Day after Day and to Felt it needed to be brought into the open again years before National campaigns stressed that the disease could affect Nice people too. Menninger never changed his Blunt ways. Years later meeting with two local service clubs i asked them Why none of their negro members could make it. That they said that the clubs excluded negroes. In that Case he said members of the clubs weren t Welcome As Volun Teers. Soon after they invited Black women to join. His recreation has been intellectual for the most part. He likes to play the piano chess three or four games simultaneously and a lot of Bridge with Long tune Friend Alf Landon the Republican presidential nominee in 1936. Landon who lives in Topeka turned 90 on sept we never agreed on How the game was dealt How it was bid or How it was played says Landon. And we never agreed on politics except on the right to work amendment. We both stumped the state against Landon remains impressed by one Side of or. Men Ninger s that the Public Seldom sees. They were visiting an institution for troubled children and he just stood and visited with them Landon says. He was t lecturing them he was listening. Karl tends to be dogmatic in his statements but not with these Chil Dren. The Many sides of his personality and his highly individual Way of doing things strike people most about or. Menninger. He can be 10 different people in one Day says mrs. Home. He can be the most seductive Man and the most or. Paul Pryor co author with Menninger of the vital balance and a Friend of 21 years describes men Ninger As a giver and a feeder. If he has an Apple hell Peel it and practically put it in your Mouth says Pryor. Menninger even shares a collection of polished rocks on his desk inviting a visitor to choose one. Then he looks the other Way. I used to watch and found that whichever Stone he chose that was the one i liked Best. Now i just Don t Twenty years ago he decided to quit smoking and stopped buying cigarettes. But then people would offer me one and i d take it he says. He started to return a pack of cigarettes for every one he borrowed. That did t work either. So he began paying Back a Carton for each cigarette and that s How he finally overcame the habit. Menninger s associates still Marvel at his Range of interests. They embrace the latest in literature and Art and roam from Disneyland where not Long ago according to mrs. Home he was just drinking in the sights and sounds to erudite discussions with or. James Drane a former Catholic priest who spent a year in Topeka in a workshop for inter related disciplines. Drane gets Calls from Menninger when he wants to Dis cuss something. One time he called Drane about the Par Able of the bad seed. He was trying to figure out the problem of evil. It s a classic biblical problem says Drane. I go Home exhausted after an hour with him. He wants to hear what you have to say but what you have to say must pass the critical test. He does t support fools or empty conversation with a great Deal of bureaucracy and administration bore him which is doubtless Why he has t been running the Menninger foundation since 1965, when he and or. Will Menninger his brother came into conflict. Or. Will died in 1966 and the foundation s Board named or. Roy Menninger or. Will s son As president. Ii Karl has always had a sixth sense for society s next sore Point we were together until 1965," says or. Karl with a note of regret. The trustees said people retire at 65 and you re past that. They said they would let me to whatever i he returned to his writing. If he had dreams that were unfulfilled he s Philosoph ical about it. I had my Chance he says. If i did t get something done it was my and anyway there Are always fulfil ments and pleas ures to talk about the museum at the Menninger foun Dation an Eclectic collection of Indian Art rugs paintings Jade jewelry and old time implements and restraining devices from mental institutions of Yore. There Are his books his four children three of a pre Vious marriage and maybe one special pet project the villages Homes for abandoned children in Kansas and elsewhere. Looking Back on his Long Busy life Menninger says people think i invented psychiatry and made Mil Lions. I did t invent psychiatry but yes i made millions. But i Don t have it. I Don t have an estate. I put it All Back into the he adds i feel i have maybe 10, maybe 15 years left thanks to the Constitution i inherited from my parents. There Are so Many wonderful things in life i shall hate to depart the Rase Hunter t by Bill Crider associated press 100 Many scoundrels and rascals get into Public life says Gerald Gallinghouse in a Southern drawl thicker than Laffy. We Are after people who defraud the Public of millions of dollars skinning the taxpayer from the neck Down and the Ankles As . Attorney in new Orleans Gallinghouse is a Hunter and the game he stalks runs from International Grain firms to congressmen from the Gover nor to the state s attorney general. A Republican serving under a democratic presi Dent Gallinghouse has won the Praise of democratic senators Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and Dick Clark of Iowa. The son of a Dairy Farmer in a City where family background reeks of near nobility he won an anti Trust conviction against a wealthy new Orleans Man who once had attained that social prize. King of the Mardi gras carnival. The Man went to prison. A Bald heavily built six footer of 57 years Gallinghouse has become known in cynical courthouse circles As sir Galahad and Captain America and the Man you love to his willingness to prosecute state Public official accused of running afoul of Federal Law has made him the feared and often detested Huntsman of Loui Siana politics. A . Attorney can t sit Back and wait for somebody to bring in a ready made Case. He has got to take the initiative Start investigations work in Active cooperation with the with that philosophy Gallinghouse has sent Testate s previous attorney general to prison on a conviction of lying to a grand jury during an investigation of a loan company lie filed bribery charges against new Orleans District attorney Jim Garri son who was acquitted at the trial but lost his place in Public life. Gov. Edwin Edwards says that he s being stalked but has t been caught because he s done nothing illegal. But Gallinghouse came close. A major contributor to Edwards 1971 race for governor Lewis Johnson was nabbed. The wealthy new Orleans builder and former chairman of the state Highway commission was convicted of tax evasion accused of claiming some Campaign contributions As corporate tax deductions. Johnson faces a year in Orison. His Case is still on Appeal. A lot of Gallinghouse s staff believing his Job would fall to a Democrat when president Carter went to the White House quit Lor other jobs. Galling House gave no thought to quitting. He continued Hunting. T _. He bagged a congressman Democrat Richard a. Tonry forced to resign during a Federal investigation of election fraud. Twenty one polling commissioners pleaded guilty to casting fake votes for Tonry. " there s a lot i want to Tell the people of Louisiana their Public officials " saturday october 1, 1977 though Tonry was not implicated in vote fraud he was imprisoned in August for a year under a Law for bidding a candidate to accept individual contributions in excess of $ 1,000. In the midst of that Gallinghouse reported that he had come upon More rascals skinning taxpayers neck to Ankles in suburban Jefferson Parish. He predicts it could blow up into something worse than the Louisiana hayride a fabled scandal of the late 1930s. The hayride involved some 250 indictments and an estimated $50 million in alleged graft and brought Down the political machine which had survived the assassination of the Kingfish sen. Huey Long. Gallinghouse likes to use it As a yardstick. But he says whether the Jefferson Parish investigation measures up depends on How hotly it is pursued. An whether he remains in office. The Job of . Attorney usually Falls into the Polit ical patronage system but Gallinghouse thus far has been spared. The latest Brush was in August when George Reese the Democrat that sen. J. Bennett Johnston d-la., had recommended for the Job withdrew his name. He claimed he was under pressure from Carter attorney general Griffin Bell and the Fri and that Bell accepted absolute lies in Fri re ports about his background. At a news conference Reese said it is my Opin Ion that the Fri deliberately chose to malign me for their own purposes and i suspect their purposes coincide with the desire of Gallinghouse to retain his Humphrey and Clark wrote Carter shortly before he took office last january asking that Gallinghouse be retained As . Attorney at new Gerald Gallinghouse a diet of roasted politicians basted with publicity sauce. Orleans or moved to the department of Justice. Their admiration stems from his investigation of the great Grain scandal where galling House estimates the crooked take mainly by big Grain companies topped a billion Over a Span of years. There were 71 convictions on fraud charges and four of the world s biggest Grain Export companies pleaded no contest and paid fines of � 10,000, the maximum under the Law. Congress imposed a new Feder Al system of Grain inspection. Although Gallinghouse s hard nose style has piled up political Points he s suffered his share of penal ties. When president Ford was still in office galling House was stymied in a bid to become a Federal judge. The american bar association which passes on nominations said Gallinghouse was unsuitable. The Aba has no authority but is influential and Gallinghouse withdrew his name. Ben Toledano a new Orleans lawyer who backs the Legal establishment but Speaks his mind was furious. He said the big Law firms used their influence to Block Gallinghouse and the Aba investigation com Mittee provided the perfect forum for the Anonymous vilification of a decent honorable Man Well qualified for a seat on the Federal Bench a Man who was the Best . Attorney to serve in new Orleans in my has Little to say now but vows to open up in the s a lot i want to Tell the people of Louisi Ana about their Public officials and what really Goeson but i Haven t been Able to he once said. How Ever i won t be in this Job forever and there Willcome a Day when i can Tell the people the whole the stars and stripes Page 15
