Nation: More on That Non-Candidate

Pennsylvania’s Governor William Scranton is the only Republican who has succeeded in convincing anyone that he really is a presidential noncandidate. Yet last week in Washington, he convinced a few more people that he surely should be in the running.

Before attending a State Department briefing on foreign affairs, Scranton appeared before a special House committee studying President Johnson’s program to eradicate poverty in the Appalachian states. Scranton was all for the idea, but he thought that some severe flaws in the Johnson program ought to be corrected.

Patches of Misery. Said Scranton to the Congressmen: “Twentythree hundred years ago, Plato described poverty as the ‘parent of meanness and viciousness,’ and he urged that society declare war on it. ‘It would be strange indeed,’ he wrote, in a state even ‘tolerably ordered,’ if the poverty-stricken were to be ‘utterly neglected’ or allowed to fall into ‘utter destitution.’ Long centuries later, our great nation still has what this year it has become fashionable to call pockets of poverty. Our society is shamed and weakened by their existence, whether they be patches of outright human misery or whether they be areas where prosperity is a fragile thing because there simply aren’t enough jobs to go around.”

So saying, Scranton detailed his objections to the bill. He argued for revisions permitting the states much greater power in planning and implementing the anti-poverty program, greater curbs on the role of federal authority, annual appropriations for funds to be made by the Congress instead of “backdoor” financing, and more specific remedies to clear up the hazards of health and economy of Appalachia’s coal regions.

When he finished, committee members nearly fell over themselves in praise. “Governor,” said Tennessee’s Democratic Congressman Clifford Davis, the chairman, “this committee has never had a finer presentation. You have given me a weekend of homework.” Pennsylvania Democrat Frank Clark said that Scranton was “the best witness we ever had.” Minnesota Democrat John Blatnik congratulated him for his “obviously very thoughtful and carefully worked out” presentation. New Jersey Republican James Auchincloss confessed that he had been “thoroughly confused about the whole program” until Scranton came along and “cut away the cobwebs.”

Praise & Hope. Illinois Democrat John Kluczynski was carried away too, and in heaping his thanks onto the pile, took note of Scranton’s presidential situation. “I know you’re doing a marvelous job as Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Kluczynski gushed, praising with a faint damn, “and I hope you continue to do so for the rest of your term.”

Through the laughter, Bill Scranton —whose term as Governor expires in 1967—replied: “That’s my hope also.”