University of Virginia Library

Ex-Ambassador Announces
Candidacy For U.S. House

By Alan Featherstone
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Murat Williams

Murat Williams, former Ambassador to
El Salvador, announced today his candidacy
for the Democratic nomination for
the House of Representatives from
Virginia's 7th District.

Among many of the societal ills being
experienced in the United States today,
Mr. Williams cites the environmental
problem as a major one. "Perils to our very
environment to our air and water and land
will demand action more sweeping and urgent
that anyone could have imagined a few years
ago."

Not only are we confronted with relatively
new problems, but Mr. Williams reminds us of
the age old problems of inflation and the
conditions associated with it, such as rising
prices and interest rates, tight money, unequal
distribution of the nation's economic burdens,
and the frightening rise in unemployment.

He says that the funds needed to alleviate
some of these conditions are not available.
"Too often," Mr. Williams contends, "blind
extravagance has smothered prudent judgment
of what is really needed for our national
wellbeing."

Mr. Williams claims to have known first hand
many of the problems which must be dealt with
now. He says, "I have been intimately engaged
in dealings with all departments of the federal
bureaucracy. I know how to cut red tape."

Mr. Williams, having been a farmer for the
last five years, is acquainted with the problems
facing the farm community today. "For our
way of life the next few years will be decisive.
We have a responsibility to provide food for the
people of our nation at reasonable prices. Yet
we are plagued by the soaring cost of all our
tools and supplies. The farmer is squeezed in
the middle."

Mr. Williams' biography is a long and varied
one. He took his degree from the University,
where he served as Editor-in-Chief of College
Topics, (the Cavalier Daily's predecessor), and
was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He attended
Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

Mr. Williams was state campaign chairman
for Eugene McCarthy in his 1968 presidential
bid and an active supporter of William C. Battle
in last year's gubernatorial campaign.