Party Crisis

Democratic National Chairman Paul Butler was flapping distress flags from every halyard. "There is no use kidding ourselves," said Butler. "The Democratic Party is confronted with a financial crisis." Butler was imparting the bad news to the Democratic National Committee, which met in Washington's Statler Hotel and rounded out its week with a poorly attended (2,500 guests) $100-a-plate dinner at the Washington Armory.

The meetings were an epic of unlucky timing. Also meeting in Washington was the American Society of Newspaper Editors, getting the big speakers and claiming the big, black headlines. Busy being the father of the bride in Missouri was the top Democratic crowd-getter, Harry Truman, who used to pack the armory (capacity 5,000). Away in Monaco at another wedding was Party Treasurer Matt McCloskey, the man most immediately concerned with Democratic fundraising. These key absences, and a number of others, left Paul Butler and the Democratic comptroller, Mrs. Mary Zirkle, to explain the financial crisis.

Beyond Money. The facts were serious, and growing more so. As of Jan. 1 the Democratic Party had $150,000 in its treasury. As of last week it had $74,393--and a national campaign coming up. "If we don't find a way to solve [the problem] promptly," said Butler, "we are faced by the very real danger that the 1956 election will be won not by the party with the best issues but by the party with the most money."

What Paul Butler did not explain was that Democratic troubles go far beyond money matters, which are a result and not a cause of the party's crisis in leadership. Butler's own national committee staff is devoutly pro-Stevenson (although Butler went to great pains to deny it last week), but hardly anywhere else in the Democratic Party is there such recognition of a leader.

Tearing the Heart. No one realizes this better than Candidate Stevenson. Touring Pennsylvania last week, Stevenson drew good crowds but appeared weary and snappish (mourned friendly N.Y. Postman Murray Kempton: "It almost tears the heart to see Stevenson"). Although Adlai had been assured of Pennsylvania's 74 convention votes by Governor George Leader and Pittsburgh's Mayor David Lawrence, Stevenson remarked: "I can't be sure, of course, that I will retain their allegiance until next August." Estes Kefauver was in no better shape; his improved Gallup poll rating after the Minnesota primary could be expected to fall off after last week's dismal New Jersey showing.

In the absence of an emerging leader, dark-horse candidacies were blooming in Missouri, Texas, Ohio, Michigan and New Jersey. Asked about the dark-horse potential of New York's Governor Averell Harriman, Stevenson replied: "There are a lot of darker horses than Harriman who will be heard from before this is all over."

Known Devil. The leadership crisis extended even to Congress, generally considered the hard core of Democratic strength. The President's veto of the natural-gas bill last February was a blow to the prestige of those leading Texans, House Speaker Sam Rayburn and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson. And Rayburn's fumble in bringing the farm-bill veto to a House' vote last week undermined what had seemed to be the party's most promising issue. Even if the Democrats pick up farm votes, there is still the civil-rights issue--on which congressional Democrats are miles apart--ready to blow things sky high. One strong hint that the Democrats may be losing the non-South Negro vote, which could be pivotal in at least nine states, came last fortnight when N.A.A.C.P. Executive Secretary Roy Wilkins, referring specifically to Southern congressional leaders, suggested that it is time for Negroes to swap "the known devil [the Democrats] for the suspected witch [the Republicans]."

In the face of this far-reaching crisis, Paul Butler is not likely to strike his distress flags soon. The Democratic Party's big contributors may yet come through--but they can hardly be expected to bet heavily on a horse that is running backward, especially when they don't yet know the name of the horse.

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