Quite a Few Things to Say

Pennsylvania's Republican Governor William Scranton has been going about giving neat little "boost Pennsylvania industry" talks to audiences that often wanted to hear what he had to say about national politics. Last week Scranton changed his style. At a black-tie dinner of the Economic Club of New York, a nonpartisan organization, he uncorked a bitingly partisan speech that let the Democratic Party have it right between the wings. Most of the blue-chip audience of 1,400 went away convinced that they had just heard Scranton deliver the opening speech in a move toward the Republican presidential nomination.

Democratic Deadlock. In his 2,500-word address, Scranton ran down an imposing list of "failures which dot the national landscape," from unemployment and poverty to civil rights and urban blight. For all of them, he said, the Democratic Party, which has been in the majority for most of the past 32 years, must be held accountable. "Our democracy is deadlocked, and the deadlock in the Democratic Party is the chief reason."

The trouble with that party, as Scranton sees it, is that "it is a party of dreams, on the one hand, and of reaction on the other. The party when it dreams has noble thoughts of shining cities, equal opportunities and social progress. The party when it governs is hamstrung by its reactionaries, who smash the dreams and leave the political landscape strewn with the broken promises of a deadlocked party."

In this situation, said Scranton, "progress today can be achieved only through the Republican Party." The "foot soldiers of the Republican Party," he cried, "are tired of losing. They are tired of being in the minority. They are tired of seeing their leaders outmaneuvered, outvoted and outpoliticked by the opposition. They are tired of being always on the defensive. They are tired of being cast in a negative role. And I don't blame them! It's time the Republican Party became once again the majority in America!"

All That & the Flag. Taking what some listeners interpreted as swipes at Presidential Candidates Nelson Rockefeller and Barry Goldwater, Scranton warned that the G.O.P. must avoid both "me-tooing the Democrats" and a benighted "do-nothingism" whose credo is that "America's problems will disappear if we all merely wrap ourselves in the Stars and Stripes." Instead, he said, the party must foster change, but in its own way. "We can devise a hundred different bold new attacks on the problems of America, and we can do it without going outside the framework of the Constitution and the Federal principle."

One possibility: since state government can in many areas accomplish more and do the job better than the central government, "why can't the Federal Government turn over to the states a percentage of the taxes now collected by Washington?"

In a question period afterward, Scranton matter-of-factly gave his opinion on a number of other points. Would he debate Lyndon Johnson on television if he was a candidate? "Oh, sure." What about the tax cut? It was all right, but "we may end up with some inflationary problems." Was poverty really a problem? "Yes," he said emphatically, noting that played-out coal mines had seamed his own state with pockets of subsistence-level existence. But "the way to hit this problem is on a pinpointing basis," instead of "plastering money to fight poverty all over the place."

Getting It Off His Chest. Inevitably, Scranton's performance stirred new speculation about his intentions. So did the fact that a couple of Dwight Eisenhower's former aides--Speechwriter Malcolm Moos and Economic Adviser Arthur Burns--had helped him draft the speech. But to all reports that he was really getting ready to run, the Governor kept insisting that he was not a candidate, would become one only in the event of "an honest and sincere draft."

"I had some things to say," he explained later. "I got them off my chest, and that's that. And incidentally, I purposely said them in a lecturing tone and not in an emotional, histrionic manner so that it would be clear to everybody that I was not trying to run for any office." But it was not at all clear to a lot of people. After the speech, New York Life Insurance Co. Chairman Richard K. Paynter Jr. began a question: "If you are the candidate this fall, and I am sure if the vote were held here to night you would be . . ." At that point, Paynter had to stop. A wave of applause was running through the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria.

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