The Nation: Quiet, Please

In an era of heightened sensitivities, for the second time in a month a high public official has displayed a remark able lack thereof. The first offender had been the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General George Scratchley Brown, with his remarks about Israeli and Jewish influence that sounded anti-Semitic (TIME, Nov. 25). This time it was Agriculture Secretary Earl Lauer Butz, who in ten ill-chosen words managed to insult both Italians and Catholics everywhere. At a breakfast meeting with newsmen, Butz set forth his belief that population control would be necessary to meet the rising demand for food by the world’s hungry. A reporter reminded Butz that Pope Paul VI had opposed population control in an audience with delegates to last month’s World Food Conference in Rome, a point of view that angered many of those concerned, like Butz, about overpopulation. But Butz heedlessly reiterated his position in a mock Italian accent: “He no playa the game, he no maka the rules.”

Monsignor Eugene V. Clark, a spokesman for Cardinal Cooke of the New York archdiocese, fired off a heated telegram of protest to President Ford, demanding that Butz “apologize immediately or resign.” A chastened Butz is sued a statement saying that his gaffe “was not intended to impugn the motives or the integrity of any religious group, ethnic group or religious leader.”

President Ford, just as he had done with Brown, summoned Butz to the White House for a reprimand.