One Man's Platform

The outspoken independence of New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller, which has vexed some Republican stalwarts, may in the end turn out to serve his party well. Two days after he was invited by G.O.P. Platform Chairman Charles Percy to submit his ideas for the 1960 Republican platform. Rocky went the invitation one better: he submitted what amounted to a whole platform. Among his planks:

Foreign Policy. The U.S. should "lead or inspire'' regional confederations of free nations. First in urgency: a "North Atlantic Confederation," in which major Western nations would build a common market with a joint program of aid to underdeveloped nations. Next: a "Western Hemisphere Confederation" to speed industrialization, land reform and low-cost housing construction in Latin America.

National Defense. Provide for a "second-strike nuclear retaliatory power capable of surviving surprise attack" and "a capacity for limited warfare that can deter or check local aggression." Needed: "Additional and improved bombers, airborne alert, more missiles of existing types, speeded production of Polaris submarines, the promptest possible dispersal and hardening of bases, and a program for civil defense." Previously, Rocky estimated the extra bill at $3.5 billion.

Arms Control. "We must reject all schemes for 'total disarmament'--unsupported by specifics and safeguards--speed and coordinate all efforts to improve [nuclear] detection devices, steadfastly adhere to the principle of the need for inspection." The U.S. should end all detectable (aboveground) nuclear tests, but "we should resume underground testing, for its results can vitally affect both offensive and defensive capabilities as well as the cleanliness of such weapons . . . Simple disarmament can invite aggression, as Nazi and Communist aggression have brutally taught Western democracies."

Labor & Agriculture. Step up automation, start broad new programs to retrain workers displaced by machines, empower the President to appoint arbitrators to settle lengthy strikes, gradually remove all farm-production controls and replace "the obsolete concept of parity" with support prices based on overall prices in the modern economy, help marginal farmers find other jobs, expand the "Food for Peace'' surplus-export program.

The Economy. Promote growth by liberalizing tax-depreciation allowances to promote private investment, eliminate featherbedding and racial discrimination in jobs.

Welfare & Civil Rights. Offer federally subsidized health insurance to all 15 million U.S. citizens aged 65 or over, finance it by boosting social security payroll taxes. Enlarge federal aid for scholarships and construction of classrooms, laboratories, dormitories. Grant authority to the U.S. Attorney General to initiate school desegregation suits, and grant financial aid to localities desegregating their public schools. Prohibit discrimination in all fed erally subsidized public housing, "with the principle of nondiscrimination next applied to multiple-dwelling housing built with FHA mortgages.

"In the grand sphere of politics," concluded Rockefeller, "we have--ultimately --something better to offer. We can--if we seriously strive--give hope, to ourselves and to all peoples, of an open world."

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