Dr. Francis E. Townsend's 13-year-old vision of pie-in-the-sky was back again, as plain as mother's lemon meringue. Last week, 5,000 "senior citizens" stormed Washington for the first postwar national convention of the Townsend clubs of America. Without glasses, any one of them could see the vision of pensions for all citizens over 60. The trick was to make the 80th Congress see it too.
The Townsendites met in Washington's 5,000-seat Uline Arena. The meeting got off with a whoop when two exuberant ladies saw California's placid, lantern-jawed Dr. Townsend, the 80-year-old founder,...