New Republic Rumble

Through 60 turbulent years of American history, the liberal weekly New Republic exerted a distinctive influence on political thought. Its tradition, shaped by men like Herbert Croly, Walter Lippmann and Edmund Wilson, continues today with John Osborne's respected "White House Watch," Richard Strout's pseudonymous "TRB" Washington column and Walter Pincus' lacerating political analysis.

Last March the New Republic was bought for $380,000 by Martin Peretz, 35, a maverick-leftist lecturer in social science at Harvard with a rich wife (Singer sewing machines) and an activist's belief in redistributing wealth. At the time of the purchase, press observers expected early trouble for the former owner and still editor, Gilbert Harrison, 59, a high-minded, unabrasive, older-style liberal and leader in the antiwar and "Dump L.B.J." movements of the '60s.

Last week trouble abruptly surfaced. Peretz, just before departing for a two-week holiday in Spain, admitted that "there have been tensions" between him and Harrison about "how the magazine should move" but denied that he had stripped Harrison of the power to assign articles. Harrison was ducking reports of his impending departure. Said one knowledgeable source: "It's a bad situation." At week's end Harrison was still in charge, but chances are that the old New Republic will never be quite the same again.

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