He spoke of Lead Belly again when Lonnie Donnigan and the Skiffle Group came up. "That's just Lead Belly," he said.

At least, an imitation, we ventured.

"Yeah," he said, his voice dropping down as though he were reading a Bible, "There's only one Lead Belly."

The talk drifted to folk singers in politics. He declined to answer a question as to why so many folk singers tend toward the radical side. "I could answer that," he grinned, "but I won't."

On the subject of integration, however, he stood squarely behind Louis Armstrong, who several weeks ago denounced the President for letting the Supreme Court's decision be flouted. "I feel the same way," he said in a leveled voice.

And Little Rock?

He turned his palms up. "What could you do? But I will say this, that the whole thing could have been handled with a little more finesse." It was a sad day when they got in a spot where they has to use troops, he said. "It won't be that way everywhere."

A little later--with out time getting thin--he came within a shade of answering the question he had turned down. "What do you think Truman would have done?" he asked. "And Roosevelt...ah now...Roosevelt."