Schism on the Left

DEMOCRATS Schism on the Left Eugene McCarthy's presidential challenge may not sunder the Democratic Party, but it has caused some damaging cracks in the liberal coalition of intellectuals and labor and civil rights leaders who make up the Americans for Democratic Action. Last week, after the A.D.A.'s board voted, 65 to 47, to endorse the Minnesota Democrat's campaign against the President, seven of its prominent members angrily resigned.

With more fervor than felicity of style, John Roche, the White House's staff intellectual, declared: "The A.D.A. has backed away from the nonsupport of totalitarianism." United Steel workers President I. W. Abel, whose union has been contributing some $10,000 annually to the A.D.A., wired National Chairman John Kenneth Galbraith that the repudiation of Johnson was "unwarranted, unrealistic and shortsighted."

Joining the walkout were Louis Stul-berg, president of International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, Communications Workers President Joseph Beirne, Berkeley Political Scientist Paul Seabury, and Leon H. Keyserling, former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Representative Henry Gonzalez, a Texas liberal and Johnson ally, also quit. Everyone expected a hasty and embarrassed resignation from Vice President Hubert Humphrey, one of the founders of the A.D.A. in 1947, but his aides passed the word that Humphrey had quietly allowed his membership to lapse three years ago.

After the Johnson supporters' first rush for the exit, however, 19 other members who voted against the McCarthy endorsement announced that they will remain in the A.D.A. to try to prevent the organization's collapse. After all, the organization may wind up backing Johnson against the Republican candidate after the party conventions this summer.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.