Pennsylvania: Case History of Decay

From Erie in the west to Wilkes-Barre and Scranton in the east, Hubert Humphrey stumped Pennsylvania last week fully aware that if he is to win its 29 electoral votes, he will have to do so largely on his own. The state's Democratic organization has decayed to the point where it simply cannot be counted on to get out the vote. Nor is the situation atypical. In practically every northern, urbanized state—the kind Humphrey must carry if he is to have any chance of winning the election—the party's machinery is in desperate disrepair Lyndon Johnson during the past five years has done little to reverse the trend, may even have accentuated it by his indifference.

Bucking Best. As recently as 1960 the party in Pennsylvania was healthy and seemingly growing stronger. David Lawrence, one of those rare bosses capable of combining a strong party organization scandal-free with a administration, progressive, sat in relatively the Governor's mansion. Richardson Dilworth presided in Philadelphia's city hall continuing the reforms started by Joseph Clark. before he moved on to the Senate. William Green the Elder ran the party in Philadelphia, and on Election Day his well-financed cadres produced the plurality that John F. Kennedy needed to carry the state. e

Now Lawrence and the elder Green are deard, and have left no heirs capable of ruling the realm. Mayor Joseph Barr of Pittsburgh and Mayor James Tate of Philadelphia can barely control their own baronies, let alone work effectively on the statewide level.

Where Green was smart enough to combine old-fashioned Irish-ward techniques with modern polling and other, newer devices. Barr, 62, and Tate, 58, have encouraged an anachronistic clubhouse atmosphere that is repugnant to the party's younger members and to most Negroes. During his re-election campaign, Tate actually bragged: "Eight of my ten department heads have beei in city government since the days of Clark and Dilworth."

Some of the party's best young men are bucking it—or deserting it. When Arlen Specter, now 38, found his career being stymied, he switched to the G.O.P. in 1965 and won the Philadelphia district attorney's office. Last year he nearly defeated Tate for the mayoralty. Another enterprising Democrat, James Walsh, 37, thought he was being held back by his elders. He successfully challenged the organization candidate in a mayoral primary, went on to win Scranton's city hall.

Cleansing Operation. Walsh was an exception. In Philadelphia, Green's son, Congressman William Green III, has been fighting a losing battle against Tate's effort to purge the party of in dependent-minded, younger men. Green was a Kennedy backer before the Senator's assassination. Tate and Barr, along with the leadership of organized labor, supported Humphrey. The stalwarts were strong enough to deliver 103¾ of Pennsylvania's 130 delegate votes to Humphrey— the very votes that nailed down the nomination for the Vice President— even though Eugene McCarthy had won Pennsylvania's primary. The leadership, as usual, was out of step with the ranks.