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Inside the Hilton's Grand Ballroom, however, a black-tie crowd of 1,000 heard from Reagan only the soft answers that proverbially turneth away wrath. He paid tribute to a list of Democratic and liberal heroes: Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. He presented himself as the protector of F.D.R.'s welfare state. Said Reagan: "I'm accused by some of trying to destroy Government's commitment to compassion and the needy. Does this bother me? Yes. I'm doing everything I can . . . to slow the destructive growth in taxes and spending, to prune nonessential programs so that enough resources will be left to meet the requirements of the truly needy."
Even some of Reagan's most platitudinous phrases were carefully tailored to reassure critics on specific points. Jewish leaders last fall complained that when they opposed the sale of AWACS radar planes to Saudi Arabia, the Administration seemed to be implying that they were putting Israel's interests ahead of America's. So Reagan asserted that "every citizens' group is guaranteed the right to speak out, and must be encouraged to do so without fear of reprisal or defamation. The language of hate, the obscenity of anti-Semitism and racism must have no part in our national dialogue."
Curiously, that line failed to win the expected cheers from this particular audience: the crowd listened in dead silence. But the N.C.C.J. members did break into applause at another passage that Reagan, knowing he would be greeted by hostile demonstrators, had penciled into his prepared text on the plane trip from Washington. Referring to "those outside the hall who spoke with such passionate conviction earlier this evening," the President asked: "Can't such a dialogue be carried out with decency and understanding, without a tone of hatred?"
Pursuing the same soft line, Reagan made a personal appearance at a White House meeting of agricultural editors and farm-state Congressmen to express sympathy for farmers caught in a squeeze between sagging agricultural prices and high interest rates. Said the President: "Many of our farmers must be wondering if the sky has not fallen. U.S. agriculture is in its third straight year of economic recession." He promised vigorous efforts to increase farm exports.
The President summoned leaders of 100 business and civic groups to the White House for a meeting at which Armco Chairman C. William Verity Jr., head of Reagan's Task Force on Private Sector Initiatives, set a goal of persuading corporations and individuals to increase greatly their charitable contributions during the next four years. That was another attempt to portray Reagan as a man of compassion, but one who believes the poor should be helped as much as possible by voluntary charity rather than Government benefits. At week's end the President hosted a White House lunch for 75 black clergymen, and again plugged voluntarism and assailed the idea that the interests of the poor should be entrusted to "paid bureaucrats." Strangely, he did not even mention the words civil rights.