Still Living

Philadelphia's Republican Alliance was born of high hopes for reform and low esteem for the city's elderly, indolent regular G.O.P. organization. Last week, after Pennsylvania's primaries, it appeared that the alliance had been born dead.

The alliance, led by Pennsylvania National Committeeman Robert L. Johnson, a former chancellor of Temple University, put on an all-out campaign. Johnson rounded up 1,500 volunteer workers, ran the campaign on a budget of more than $25,000 a month. Johnson denounced Organization Bosses William Austin Meehan and Wilbur Hamilton for having, over the years, worked under the table with Philadelphia's dominant Democrats. He found one ally in the Philadelphia Inquirer, which declared the alliance to be "the sole hope of the Republican Party's future in this city." He found another in Dwight Eisenhower, who called a primary-eve press conference in Philadelphia to proclaim that success for the alliance would betoken "victory for the Republican Party in Pennsylvania in November, and a resurgence of G.O.P. strength in the big cities throughout the nation." And then-- kerplunk! The alliance had put up 29 candidates for major party and public offices against the Meehan-Hamil-ton Philadelphia G.O.P. organization. All 29 alliance candidates lost. Next day Johnson, while retaining his national committeeman's job, resigned from what was left of the Republican alliance.

It did seem a pity. But there was life in Pennsylvania's old Republican Party yet. For Governor, the state's G.O.P.

voters overwhelmingly nominated William Scranton, 44, an impressive freshman in the U.S. House of Representatives, who was supported both by Johnson's alliance and by the Meehan-Hamilton people.

Statewide, Scranton's vote of 728,369 votes outstripped that of the Democratic nominee, former Philadelphia Mayor Richardson Dil worth, 63, who got 642,165.

Even in Philadelphia, Scranton ran only 20,000 behind Dilworth. And under the challenge of the reformist Republican alliance, the old G.O.P. had bestirred itself as it had not in years. If its energy can continue through November, Scranton, who is already being mentioned as a dark horse for the Republican presidential nomination in 1964, may win.

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