Ring Job Ordered

The Republican machine in Philadelphia, which has been emitting a murky odor from its City Hall exhaust, had a new man at the wheel last week. With the machine's help, the Rev. Daniel Alfred Poling, 66, internationally known Baptist clergyman, newspaper columnist, editor and Christian Endeavor leader, won the Republican nomination for mayor.

The campaign's listlessness was broken only by his primary opponent's attempt to show that, since Dr. Poling had run and lost for the governorship of Ohio on the Prohibition ticket back in 1912, he would be a bluenose mayor. Dr. Poling assured suspicious liquor dealers: "Your business is as legal as mine." He won the nomination handily.

Distinctly not the kind of man a voter would expect to find tied up with an administration noted for graft, extortion and embezzlement, Dan Poling promptly let it be-known that he planned to install some new piston rings to clean up that exhaust. He would call a meeting of civic leaders to reorganize Philadelphia Republicanism, he said, and start "a veritable crusade for honest, efficient government."

Democrats, who first cracked the Republican stronghold by winning four important City Hall jobs in 1949, nominated City Controller Joseph S. Clark Jr. for mayor, and City Treasurer Richardson Dilworth, a socialite turned Fair Deal street orator, for district attorney. Despite Dan Poling's respected name, there is still a chance that in November Philadelphia will elect its first Democratic mayor in 67 years.

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