DEMOCRATS: Metaphoric Morsel

As the 1956 campaign rolled into its preliminary stages, Democrats continued to dispute whether their line for 1956 should or should not follow the moderate tone sounded by Adlai Stevenson. But what would the line be if it were not moderate? New York’s Governor Averell Harriman had a try at defining it and so did Michigan’s Governor G. Mennen (“Soapy”) Williams (TIME, Dec. 5). But both of them came over with a strident quality that reduced their effectiveness. Then, one day last week, the best non-moderate Democratic line to date was strung out by a surprising source: the sachem of Tammany Hall.

Before 300 political writers at a National Press Club lunch in Washington, Carmine De Sapio discussed foreign and economic policy at a level never before scaled by a boss of Tammany Hall. While Republicans could point to plenty of holes in the speech, it was capable campaign debating. On the platform the man who is supposed to do his work behind the scenes did better than the front men have done.

Democratic Peace. The Republicans, charged De Sapio, are attempting to “gorge the American voter on this charming metaphoric morsel—peace and prosperity. The Republicans talk of peace as if it were something which they invented and . . . which only they could safeguard. They ignore the fact that peace, as it exists today, is the direct result of the bipartisan foreign policy worked out by the Democratic Administration.

“Can the Republicans claim credit for the United Nations? Can the Republicans claim credit for the prevention of a third world war by the decisive and prompt action taken in Korea? Can the Republicans claim credit for the Marshall Plan, for the Mutual Security Program, and for the strong alliance which has developed with the democracies of the West? Can the Republicans take credit for the establishment of Israel as a bulwark for freedom in the Middle East? Or can they claim that they are responsible for checking the spread of Communism in Europe?”

Corporate Prosperity. “And what about this great prosperity—this repetitious chant which is being drummed into the minds of the American people? Is there prosperity for the small businessman who, in greater number every day, is forced into bankruptcy or swallowed up in monopoly mergers? Is there prosperity for the white-collar worker whose fixed salary makes it increasingly difficult for him to make ends meet? Is there prosperity for the American farmer?

“You and I know who has the prosperity: the large corporations, the dozen or so industrial empires which control the destinies of 165 million people. They have been given virtually complete freedom from governmental control. Their officers and directors comprise the very Cabinet of the Government. Their representatives constitute the powerful army of dollar-a-year men in Washington who form, mold and enforce economic policy.”

When Tammany Boss De Sapio was through crediting the Democrats with all of the good and the Republicans with all of the bad, many reporters at the National Press Club agreed that he had cut and laid out what might well become the pattern for the Democratic campaign of 1956.