EN ROUTE WITH PRESIDENT JOHNSON, Sept. 28--Drawing record crowds and enjoying himself as much as ever, President Johnson brought a strong plea for votes to hundreds of thousands of New Englanders today, as he made a major campaign swing through five states.

He concluded his tour with a visit to the bedside of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D.-Mass.), who is recovering from an airplane accident.

The President appealed to the people to choose "higher values than party or partisanship" in this election and asked that they select "responsible government" which will continue the record of "peace and prosperity" of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

He frequently referred to his 1965 budget cut, to his accomplishments in Congress and he pledged "equal opportunity for every section of this nation."

President Johnson was well over an hour late for his first appearance, at the 200th anniversary convocation at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. As soon as he arrived at the airport and began a motorcade through the city, he was mobbed by enthusiastic supporters, who persuaded him to stop and speak at approximately 15 street coruers.

During the motorcade, there was momentary panic as the car of White House aside John A. Valenti caught fire.

President Pusey, an honored guest and speaker at Brown, waited with the restless crowd of 4800 for the President's arrival.

Most of Mr. Johnson's remarks at Brown were concerned with education. The answer for all of our national problems, for all the problems of the world, come to one single word--education," he said.

Hartford, Connecticut gave President Johnson a tumultuous welcome as throngs defined almost every inch of his route. A White House staff member commented that he had "not seen any thing like this since Berlin."

In the portico before the Hartford Times, where Presidential candidates and other politicians have traditionally addressed the citizens of Connecticut, there was a sea of people whose number defied even the most experienced crowd estimators. Despite the recommendations released over the weekend by the Warren Commission, the president continually climbed atop his limousine to street the crowd--to the obvious consternation of battered Secret Service agents.

"All that America is, and all that you want America to be, is challenged by those who stand on the fringe," the president charged in his Hartford speech.

While President Johnson stumbled noticeably several times when he departed from his written text, he was at his best in an extemporaneous address to a delighted gathering of insurance executives and businessmen in Hartford.

Here he extolled the roll of the capitalist, the manager, the worker, and the federal government in the "prudence and progress" of our free enterprise system. He was speaking to the businessmen, he said, in order to "ask advice, thank you for your help, and show you I'm not scared of you."

A large crowd, primarily students, greeted the president in football-rally fashion at a Burlington, Vt., airport rally. As the President shook hands along a fence, the audience chanted, "Hey, hey, what do you say: All the Way with LBJ."

At this gathering, he claimed that as Senate Majority Leader he had supported the Eisenhower administration more often than had his "opponent in this race."

The first President to speak in Portland, Me., in half a century, Mr. Johnson received a rowdy reception from what was said to be the largest crowd ever backed into Portland. As he shook the sand of one ecstatic woman, she squeal- ed, "He is so lovely."

His address in Portland was a discussion of the state's economic concerns, and later in Manchester. N.H., where he received an enthusiastic but more restrained welcome he discussed the need for a foreign policy based upon reasonable compromise.

Throughout the day, President Johnson tried to project the image of a man of the people. As he loosened up and smiled more frequently and more broadly, he would use a thrust of his fist and a firm look to attract applause at particular points in his speeches.

His contact with the audience was almost perfect and in his control at all times. When he noticed in Hartford that the crowd was restless, he stopped and asked "Are you listening?" The mob roared back that they were