The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 24

THE BURLINGTON FREE PRESS oponoon WL WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 1972 McGovern Is Assured of First Ballot Nomination The Age of Withdrawal 271 California delegates he won in the state's winner-take-all primary June 6. McGovern not only won but he did so by a margin to 1,238 large enough to take all the starch out of the Humphrey strategy of challenging the validity of the verdict on procedural grounds. A Florida backer of Gov. George C. Wallace, Norman Bie did raise the technicalities.

But McGovern won here by an even more impressive figure, 1,690 to 1,162. Supporters of Humphrey, Wallace and Edmund S. Muskie continued to bluster in the aisles that the fight wasn't over. But, with the added 151 votes from winning the California case, McGovern seemed assured of more than 1,750 Wednesday when only 1,509 are needed to win. Despite the universal recognition of the importance of the California test, the decision was reached with a minimum of acrimony and unruliness on the floor.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This column was written prior to the withdrawals of Senators Humphrey and Muskie yesterday afternoon. Free Press-Gannett Service MIAMI BEACH Sen. George S. McGovern has won a runaway triumph at the Democratic National Convention and barring some totally unforeseen development assured himself his party's Presidential nomination on the first ballot Wednesday night. McGovern delegates steam-rollered the coalition of opponents led by Hubert H.

Humphrey by such an imposing margin he seemed likely to win the nomination with at least 300 votes to spare. And the prospect was for more delegations to cave in to the realities of the convention in the hours remaining before the Presidential balloting. The dimensions of McGovern's strength became clear on the vote to deny him 151 of the THERE SEEMS TO be a fascination these days with the act of withdrawal. Few people are willing to stand up and fight anymore not for principle or for anything else. The latest act of withdrawal occurred yesterday afternoon when both Hubert Humphrey and Edmund Muskie withdrew from the Presidential race.

This despite the fact that Humphrey won more votes than any other Democrat in the primaries, and Muskie was still considered to be the strongest possible candidate in a contest with President Nixon. For many years now, of course, this nation has been withdrawing from its involvement in Vietnam. Perhaps this set the stage for the age of withdrawal. Acts of withdrawal are publicized everywhere. Even Bobby Fischer, the chess whiz, has been desperately trying to withdraw from the celebrated world chess championship.

Elsewhere in the world of so-called "sports," Vida Blue withdrew for a couple of months from major league baseball and Bobby Hull has withdrawn from the National Hockey League. There are thousands, perhaps millions, of hippies who have withdrawn from modern civilization. And there appear to be lots of environmentalists in Vermont who are doing their determined best to force out-of-staters to withdraw from the Green Mountain State. Meanwhile, back in politics, there is strong pressure for the withdrawal of Spiro Agnew from the second Nixon Administration. And what about the forced withdrawal of all those Democratic professionals from this week's national convention? This age of withdrawal may be remembered as one of the darker chapters in American history.

F.B.S. Don't Mind Political Change If If's in My Favor' Indeed, the only display of high feeling came after Willie Brown, a California legislator with a reputation for a flamboyant oratical style, demanded on McGovern's behalf: "Give me back my delegates." Across the huge convention hall, McGovern supporters rose and cheered. Then, a moment later, their opponents countered, turning their thumbs down, chanting "No! No! No!" Finally, the McGovernites chanted "Seat California," which is just what the convention did on the roll call a few minutes later. IT WAS CLEAR almost from the outset of the balloting that McGovern would win. His margins in delegation after delegation ran ahead of the projections of his own tacticians.

And when New Jersey gave him 85 of its 109 votes, the convention seemed to recognize the trend and a cheer went up. The 267 of New York's 278 votes gave McGovern 1.447, enough to carry the question, and Pennsylvania's 72 gave him 1,541. The latter was particularly valuable to McGovern. It means he had more than the 1,509 that is a majority of all delegates and the standard the Humphrey forces hoped to impose if McGovern managed to exceed only the 1,433 votes that would make up a majority of those already seated. Florida delegate Bie then tried a two-step ploy, challenging national Chairman Lawrence F.

O'Brien's standard of 1,433 votes and his ruling that the undisputed 120 California delegates could vote on the fate of their colleagues. A favorable vote on both of these would have put McGovern under 1,509 votes, but the tactic was too much for some 70 delegates who joined McGovern's original corps to settle the issue. The crucial case did not reach a vote until almost midnight as convention officials stalled in the obvious hope they could wash their dirty linen after television viewers had turned in. And before it was over, the session took on the aspect of an endurance contest. By 3:30 a.m., while the convention voted on the Illinois credentials compromise, some delegates were managing to doze in their chairs and a few were stretched out in the aisles.

THE FIRST INDICATION of the control and confidence of the McGovern strategists came almost five hours earlier, on the first credentials case involving a claim South Carolina had not given women enough representation. The McGovern bloc took a generally pro-women stance, but backed off when it appeared the vote might be close. Several McGovern-dominated delegations changed their votes to assure that their measure would lose substantially. The explanation was a decision to avoid a showdown on the question of a requirement for the majority until the California case rather than risking a test on a side issue. The maneuvering on the floor followed a full day of speculation that a compromise might be reached before the session opened.

This was fanned largely by Muskie's call for a meeting of the candidates to seek such a solution, and by speculation he would throw in with McGovern if that were not possible. As it turned out, McGovern rejected the meeting and the possibility of compromise, obviously confident that he had the votes. And Muskie ultimately joined the anti-McGovern cabal on California and thus suffered another defeat in a long year of defeats. The scope of McGovern's victories in the first session had several important implications for the rest of the convention. For one thing, it seemed to free him from any necessity for using the Vice Presidential nomination as a bargaining chip to assure the nomination for himself.

And that, of course, means he has a totally free hand in making that decision. For another, McGovern's dominance should encourage party peacemakers to try to soften the attacks on the South Dakota liberal by the old guard and labor delegates in the final days of the convention and the national spotlight. Whether such an effort would materialize was to be apparent Tuesday night, when the principal business of the convention was the approval of a platform that was written by McGovernites to be noncontroversial but has prompted strong opposition from the Wallace forces. Beware Blind Utopianism ilk i i orycnni Politics and Other Issues battlefield when disappointment sets in as it always does. "To say all this is not to deny the importance of action, but to insist upon responsible action "The main task of those committed to a better life is to be rigorous and yet sensible, determined to aim high yet refusing to fall for Utopian 'solutions' that are bound to disappoint in the long run THOSE WHO SEE what is wrong with our society, and demand that changes be made to improve it, make an important contribution to human welfare.

But too frequently they expect to bring about improvements merely by passing laws or changing leadership for the purpose of more strict enforcement of the laws we have. When that doesn't bring the Utopia they expect, they lose faith in democratic processes and undertake to impose their will by force. What such "reformers" overlook is the fact that most of the ills in our society are the product of human faults. These are shared by all of us. in varying degrees, and selfishness is one of the greatest of these faults.

We are all inclined to criticize the faults of others without recognizing our own to insist that others change but reserving the right to do as we please. Because of these human traits, important changes in human society come slowly. Laws may be passed, but they are not effective unless public opinion and action supports them. Reforming the ills of society calls for patience and perseverance because it involves changing people who contribute to the ills. However discouraging that may seem, we have to keep working at it, each of us starting with himself.

E.F.C. DESPITE THE LESSONS of history, there are many people who seem to think that all that is wrong with the world can be changed quickly by political action that if political leadership can be changed all our problems will be solved. Such people are seeking Utopia overnight. When it doesn't arrive on schedule, they become disillusioned and frequently bitter. When enough people get into this frame of mind, there is real trouble.

In a recent speech, William D. Ruckelshaus, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said in part: "Maybe the crisis of confidence we as a nation are experiencing today stems from the implicit utopianism of many cries of reform, the notion that man is capable of perfecting himself and his society. "In my view the danger of this assumption in politics is that if society is clearly seen to be perfectible, one is justified in adopting rather stringent methods to perfect it. When these solutions fail they often generate even more extreme measures and ultimately devolve into authoritarianism. We read this lesson in the grim annals of the French and other revolutions.

"The threat of autocracy may seem remote and it probably is. But there are more immediate shoals on the voyage to Utopia. One is the loss of perspective. If it is possible to legislate absolute equality of opportunity, to ensure perfect justice, to gain total freedom, then any mere approximation of these ideals must seem like an insidious compromise. Progress then is not measured for what it is but rather in terms of failure to achieve the ultimate.

The result is despair. Blind idealism ensures that some will cop out. will quit the moral Denial of Representation The "new" Democratic Party, with its "perfect" cross-section of the poor, young, colored, and female delegates, turned out, in my estimation, an unbelievable performance Monday night. These delegates cast under three thousand votes and almost two million Californians were denied an equal voice towards the choosing of the party's next Presidential candidate. I must admit I was shocked to see equal representation make I legitimacy of the belief that "the poor" are wholly disenfranchised in this administration? And does the governor's remark embarrass and dismay any of Vermont's more affluent citizenry? I personally believe that the "who knows" statement with its inherent flagrant lack of knowledge and concern will be oft-quoted, and may go dpwn in history as the modem day comparative to "Let them eat cake!" I am, however, enormously grateful that this beautiful state still has its share of the Phil Hoffs and Tom Hayes's who can and do speak so eloquently on behalf of the poor.

As for Mr. Davis, I can only add that I sincerely hope he has a prosperous and restful retirement, but that, as of that time, he limit all further public utterances exclusively to discussing the care and feeding of Morgan horses! ROSALEE KLUG Burlington, Vt. Story Placement Criticized Isn't there something macabre about ghoulish journalists who publish a special Saturday supplement to their newspaper entitled "Northern Vermont Attractions" and have as their lead feature a tragic and gory highway death? Take another bow for humanity, Burlington Free Press. JOSEPH BORNSTEIN Burlington, Vt. Appeal by McGovern Daley Loses Gamble Criticism of CSA Position The continued insistance of the badly misnamed Common Sense Associates that there can be infinite economic growth in a world of finite resources leads me to believe that, anthropological evidence notwithstanding, some men, at least, are descended not from a primate ancestor but rather from the lemmings.

STEVE PASTNER Charlotte, Vt. way for delegate loyalty. Undying cries of "ineffectualness" have been heard from these newly represented groups. The chance for change was in their hands and not the politicians'. They blew it! Even my home state's delegation chose to overwhelmingly ignore more people than it will represent for many years.

Is this a revolutionary party or an old party in different guise? The other big party casts a brighter light. RICHARD CORCORAN Winooski, Vt. The Death of a Patriarch The most important thing in this life to many is to live in Christ. Each of us has to find his own way to Him. Some of us find we can do this best as good Catholics, Episcopalians, Baptists, Methodists and so on.

Some of the best "Christians" I know are Jewish people. The most important thing is to be "good" at whatever you believe in. On Friday, July 7, a great man died. A man who was "good" at what he believed in. Yet this great man was treated lightly in The Burlington Free Press, the New York Times and other papers.

To Christians all over the world who share Christ as their Saviour, in spite of their individual denominations, I am sure they also mourn the death of Patriarch Athenogoras. I think that Patriach Athenogoras's death and the proceedings of choosing a new Patriarch which can be likened to the selection of a Catholic Pope for 250 million Orthodox Christians is of immense concern to all peoples all over the world and should receive greater coverage from the papers of the world. DIANE PAPPAS Burlington, Vt. Davis and the Poor People I was appalled and outraged by Governor Davis's reply of "Who knows what the poor believe on any social issue," allegedly given in response to a query concerning legal rights of the poor directed to him at the recent New England Governors' Conference (AP, Free Press, Saturday, July 8). Is it really possible that Mr.

Davis does not know that there are so many residents in this state living below established poverty guidelines that Vermont has been officially designated a "poverty area" by the Federal Government? (Dept. of HEW). Or that numerous representatives of various anti-poverty agencies, such as the Poor Peoples Congress, Welfare Rights Organization, various Community Action groups, as well as his own Commissions, on Aging, on the Handicapped, and many individual poor have been attempting repeatedly over the years with great vigor and little success to enlist a bit of the governor's time and attention in order to acquaint him with the attitudes and positions of "the In view of all these circumstances, can there be any reasonable excuse whatever for a governor of all the people to not only admit, but export, an observation demonstrating such abysmal' ignorance of So many of his people and their views? Is there now any question about the "We're being magnanimous," said Jean Westwood, Utah's national committeewoman and a key McGovern operative. Daley's opponents, Chicago Alderman William Singer and black community leader Jesse Jackson, have already scored their points against Daley, she said. Georgia Gov.

Jimmy Carter, long fearful of the political damage Southern Democrats might suffer with McGovern at the head of the ticket, said he was impressed by McGovern 's effort to build a bridge to the party regulars. "I hope it's an indication of what he'll be willing to do between now and November," said Carter. "If Daley doesn't want to agree to it, that's another matter," he said. At least an attempt was made. Morrison's motion to suspend the rules had to be approved by two-thirds of the convention under parliamentary requirements.

It didn't even get a majority, failing by 1,411 to 1,483. The anti-Daley vote appeared to remain constant. Without a Ted Kennedy or an Abe Ribicoff in second place, the drive for unity with George Meany's labor forces will move with the speed of a snow plow in the Everglades. But McGovern and Mankiewicz, however, have a strategy for salving the "Meany movement's" sensitivities. The strategy is called Humphrey.

McGovern reckons Hubert Humphrey would not turn his back on an old friend, a once devoted compatriot and the man who jumped to the Chicago convention platform to rally forces for HHH in '68. That man is McGovern. So when the Miami heat is off, McGovern's game plan calls for asking Senator Humphrey to be ambassador to the angry labor leaders now up the beach at the Hotel Americana. Humphrey has been in constant touch with Meany and his podium-thumping, money-raising, Nixon-hating political director Al Barkan, the AFL-CIO's 62-year-old Jim Farley. If it all goes as McGovern plans it, I do believe Hubert Humphrey will be McGovern's ambassador behind the scenes if not actually right out front.

He would go to the United Steel Workers' president I. W. "Abe" Abel, labor's convention floor leader and Humphrey's intimate friend. They would bring McGovern and Meany together. This McGovern needs desperately, regardless of his effectively cool derision of all establishments.

FEW REALIZE AS well as McGovern does the role the labor establishment has played in making him a successful politician instead of a dull professor writing an esoteric thesis on the 1913 Ludlow Massacre. McGovern himself said as much right in this town shortly before noon last Nov. 19. Then he had followed Richard Nixon to the AFL-CIO convention platform. Fifteen times the thousand delegates had applauded his needling of the President.

They cheered when he said: "One lesson I have learned in politics. that it is not only enough to be right on the issues; you have to organize to get your message across and to get your people to the polls. .1 want to say this morning that we are indebted to labor's COPE (Committee on Political Education), to Al Barkan and to others for much of the success we have enjoyed in our (Republican) state. But the nation's real experts on organization. here in this auditorium." With their help, said he in effect, he could retire John Connally, Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon.

McGovern's a pro. That's why he has been proffering peace and political bandaids. His amateurs really cut up his party. MIAMI With uncharacteristic humility, Senator McGovern has been on the long distance telephone all this past week with powerful, albeit momentarily purged, Democratic leaders, county chairmen who were defeated in primary races, et reporting to them that he has been unable to control his troops. His recurrent theme is his desire for party unity with oldline leaders, with the professional party people and with the labor movement especially with the labor movement.

Typical is one such conversation. The South Dakotan was on "the farm in Maryland" during the Fourth of July weekend when he asked his chief counsellor, Frank Mankiewicz, to telephone some of the New York State county leaders who were brashly wiped off the big state's convention delegation by McGovern's youthful reform brigades. Without wide labor and county machine support in this swing state, McGovern can't carry it and if he doesn't take New York he might as well relax in the Black Hills. So Mankiewicz phoned the blondish, fortyish Irishman, Pat Cunningham, the Bronx County leader. Frank suggested he call McGovern "on the farm." The candidate would like to hear from him.

Cunningham is a blend of old Joe Kennedy-Jack Kennedy politics updated. Like 57 other New York county leaders, he was deprived of his place in the convention delegation. But he rang "the farm." McGovern answered. There was some confidential talk which doesn't matter here. Then McGovern urged Cunningham to come on down to Miami.

There would be a Convention Hall badge, certainly. And he asked what could be done to unite the party after he got the nomination. Cunningham listened respectfully. Then he suggested a 25-man national unity committee which could spread across the land preaching internal peace men such as former New York Mayor Robert Wagner and former Ambassador Averell Harriman. McGovern replied this was simply a grand idea, especially since he was having difficulty, said he, controlling his young followers who are purge-impassioned.

AT THIS WRITING Cunningham still is in the Bronx waiting to see if Ted Kennedy uses that plane which is standing by near Hyannisport. Then everyone will go to Florida. McGovern's people have not given up trying to get Ted to take second place particularly since their private polls disclose that the only two men who would add strength to a McGovern ticket are Kennedy and George Wallace. Free Press-Gannett Service MIAMI BEACH Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley was barred from the Democratic National Convention early Tuesday morning because he gambled on getting the support he needed from Sen.

George S. McGovern and lost. Convinced that he has the Presidential nomination Wednesday in his pocket, McGovern sent his aides to work for a compromise seating both Mayor Daley's 59-member delegation and the 59 anti-Daley challengers. But when that compromise failed, the convention voted 1.486 to 1.371. to keep out the old convention kingmaker There was never much hope for the compromise.

McGovern aides said. "The hardest things were to get the compromise on the floor and getting Daley to agree to it," said McGovern 's political director. Gary Hart. Daley never agreed to it, said Hart and key members' of the Illinois delegation. A Daley aide told Sen.

Adlai E. Stevenson III to vote against the compromise because the Daley side had the votes to win the whole thing. Stevenson couldn't believe it and voted to compromise "We've got New York locked up," said a Daley ward leader. But the New York delegation voted against Daley 256 to 20. There were some McGovern votes for Daley on the final vote, but far too few Appreciation for Teen Choir As a Vermonter, and I'm sure that I speak for others, we send loving thoughts in appreciation for the group of wonderful, talented young people of the "Solid Rock Teen Choir" of the Columbia Baptist Church, who came here to tell the story of Christianity in song.

Thanks for coming, it was a privilege to have you. Prayers are winged your way and hope that you come again to inspire us in song. MRS. JEANETTE L. WORNALL East Calais, Vt.

THERE WERE TOO many long memories among liberal Democrats here who never forgave Daley and his policemen for their part in the turmoil of the 1968 Chicago convention. And a strong case had been made by the opposition that Daley had used his organization's power to elect his Chicago slate in the Illinois primary, in violation of party-reform rules. Now Daley, 61, will sit this convention out. Whether he will be sitting out the fall campaign isn't certain. Daley loyalists like Rep.

Roman Pucinski of Chicago have warned that Daley and his 35,000 political workers and city employes will walk away from McGovern. But Stevenson said it wouldn't happen. "Daley will support all the Democratic candidates. It's in his own best interest," said Stevenson. Swimming Program Thanks My thanks to all parents and teen-agers who helped with driving, water moms, aides, in our 1972 Red Cross Swimming program.

Without their wonderful support, our program would not have been so successful. We also thank the Red Cross group for their help in making this all possible, also the Hazelett Family for allowing us to use their beach each year. Congratulations to the following in passing the various groups: Swimmers Kenny Buxton; Intermediates Steven Guay, Pat Aldinger, Cheri Boynton, Katie French, Mike Lewis, and Tammy Sawyer; Beginners Mike Burton, Cheryl Haversat, Doreen Smith, Larry Staab, Billy Shiffler, Barbara Shiffler, and Andy Vogelman. t- 4 MILLY BUXTON Jericho, Vt. McGOVERN'S FLOOR workers did press for a compromise.

Frank Morrison, former governor of Nebraska and McGovern's campaign manager there, rose to ask the convention to suspend its rules to permit a vote on the compromise. "I come here to unify the party," he said. Hart told delegates in the aisles it was wrong consider the Daley challenges as a black-or-while issue "There is right and wrong on both sides," said Hart..