National Affairs: The Liberal Program

Between potshots at each other, the Democratic Advisory Council’s 31 members found time during their long weekend in Manhattan to fire off a formal 22-point salvo at the Eisenhower Administration. “The Republican Party is unworthy to continue to exercise the power of national government,” preambles the D.A.C.’s pile of campaign planks. It lays down a hard line against President Eisenhower’s personal peace campaign (“Good-will tours are an inadequate substitute for solid policies”), attacks Administration defense policy (“The Republicans believe money to be more important than military security”), calls for a full-speed drive into space. It slams the anti-inflation policy (“Age-old affinity for the moneyed interests”), scores the prolonged steel strike (“A failure in executive leadership”), calls for prosperity for farmers (“The social institutions of many of our rural communities … are withering under the deepening pall of agricultural depression”).

In its recommendations for more Government action, the program stuck by the time-honored liberals’ issues: an increase in social-security payments, stronger civil-rights legislation and higher minimum wages. Added suggestion: a U.S. National Peace Agency to ride herd on all programs designed for the pursuit of peace.

The resounding proclamation got plenty of headlines, but it suffered from one basic defect: House Speaker Sam Rayburn and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, the Democrats who can do most to translate the program into law, stayed far, far away from the D.A.C. session and said not a good word for its platform.