Politics: Another Try

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Philadelphia's Democratic Mayor Richardson Dilworth has long hankered after the Governor's chair in Harrisburg. He won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1950, but lost to Republican John S. Fine in the general election. In 1958, partly because of his support of U.S. diplomatic recognition of Communist China, Pennsylvania's Democratic leaders dumped him as a candidate for Governor. But last week Dick Dilworth was ready to try again. He announced his resignation as mayor, effective Feb. 12—a step that he must take, under the Philadelphia city charter, before he can stand for another office.

A Marine Corps veteran of both world wars, Mayor Dilworth, 63, was elected city treasurer in 1949, moved up to district attorney two years later in a reform sweep that put Joseph S. Clark in office as the first Democratic mayor of Philadelphia in 67 years. When Clark went to the U.S. Senate in 1956, Dilworth took over as mayor. He won re-election in

1959, soundly trouncing Republican Harold Stassen. Dilworth energetically carried out the cleansweep urban renewal programs begun under Clark, made his own mark as an all-out liberal reformer.

Then last year some flaws appeared in the image. City Controller Alexander Hemphill uncovered a batch of municipal misdemeanors, described by Dilworth (who nonetheless fired all the city employees involved) as "penny-ante stuff." Dilworth then took off for a round-the-world trip. By the time he came back, a Philadelphia contractor stood accused of profiting by $800,000 on a''$1,000,000 contract for city transit repairs; the same contractor had sent the city treasurer a Christmas bottle of whisky, cheerily wrapped in $100 bills. Dilworth, never touched personally by the scandals, admitted that "We were lax." It seemed for a while that his hopes for the governorship had been dashed.

But the passage of months took some of the sting out of the scandals, and last week Dilworth found his way out of another ticklish situation: he had just achieved a hiatus in a bitter 4½-month strike by the International Association of Machinists against Yale & Towne, lock manufacturers. Basking in this glow, Dilworth announced his forthcoming resignation as mayor, preparatory to declaring for Harrisburg next month.