Massachusetts: Crowded Platform

"You don't help a man by constantly giving him more and more handouts, over and over," exhorts the candidate. "You destroy his self-respect. What we want to do is to make men productive." Many a white politician is using the same argument this fall to exploit anti-Negro feeling. But the speaker in this case is Edward W. Brooke, 47, Republican attorney general of Massachusetts who, if victorious on Nov. 8, will be the first Negro U.S. Senator in nearly a century.

Brooke himself has not emphasized racial issues in previous campaigns. Yet, though his Democratic opponent, former Governor Endicott Peabody, 46, is an ardent civil rights advocate, Brooke has seen his early lead threatened by anti-Negro reaction, and of late has denounced both Stokely Carmichael and Lester Maddox as "the extremists of black power and white power."

Peabody has been handshaking his way around the state with on-the-hoof assistance from the Kennedys and Postmaster General Larry O'Brien. Like Brooke, Peabody gets good receptions, which seem to belie Brooke's advantage in the opinion polls. In the absence of clear ideological differences, liberal Republican Brooke reminds the electorate that the Democratic voters failed to renominate Peabody after his one term as Governor. Peabody retorts that Brooke is a most un-Republican Republican. "He is trying to run on my platform," says Peabody. "He should resign from his own party."

In the gubernatorial race, the Democrats have put on a rare show of party unity that has helped to narrow the initial advantage of Republican Incumbent John Volpe, 57, over the Democratic candidate, former Attorney General Edward McCormack, 43. Volpe, whether dancing Zorba-style at Greek picnics or playing boccie with the paesam, is a more spirited stump performer than the reserved McCormack. Also going for Volpe are the state's prosperity and a generally impressive record in office. McCormack's own poll, completed last week, gave Volpe a tenuous advantage of 2½%.