DEMOCRATS: A Golden Rule

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In their unaccustomed role of minority and opposition party, Democratic leaders are still trying to orient themselves and to lay down a line of conduct. This week Illinois' Senator Paul Douglas, writing in the New York Times Magazine in the accents of sensible sincerity which have characterized his political career, offered a Democratic position.

Douglas went along with Adlai Stevenson's fear (TIME, Feb. 23) that the Eisenhower Administration is a big-business administration (backed by the "big military" and "big publishing"). He held that the Democrats should make their pitch primarily in the field of civil rights and social security. He agreed, in general, with the Eisenhower foreign policy of a "strong program of collective security and . . . the vigorous cooperation of the free world to check Communist aggression.

"If opposition develops . . . the President is going to need the help of Democrats," wrote Douglas. "Happily, I think this help would be forthcoming."

Douglas most clearly set his own mark of distinction in outlining his code for criticism. "For an opposition to concentrate entirely upon the bad features of a given policy, without also considering the good, and without suggesting a superior substitute, is to fail in its full duty." Specifically, "we Democrats in Congress should: 1) Support the new Administration vigorously when we believe it is right. 2) Be tolerant and understanding when our opponents make minor mistakes . . . Many decisions have to be quickly made and it is inevitable that some of these will go wrong. We should not be continually calling foot-faults on such occasions . . . particularly ... in the first months of a new Administration. 3) When we believe the Republican Party and the Administration to be in serious error, however, we should speak out vigorously . . . But in doing so we should refrain from attacking the motives or character of the President, or of our opponents . . ."

Douglas then wryly proposed a golden rule for his party: "We Democrats should treat President Eisenhower as we thought the Republicans should have treated our Democratic Presidents . . ."