Reform or Die

Following his unsuccessful bid for the presidential nomination last year, South Dakota's Senator George McGovern won praise from fellow Democrats by endorsing and campaigning for Hubert Humphrey. Since then, however, kudos has turned to condemnation, gratitude to distrust. Powerful Southern Democrats have accused McGovern of trying to "ram proportional representation" down their throats. Northern machine bosses have accused him of widening, rather than closing, the splits within Democratic ranks. Even such liberal stalwarts as Edward Kennedy and Edmund Muskie are keeping him at arm's length.

The reason for the sudden decline in popularity is McGovern's chairmanship of a special commission investigating--and finding--abuses in the selection of convention delegates. Born of the Chicago convention's tumult and disillusionment, the commission was set up by the party leadership as a sop to the liberals. McGovern was named chairman as a compromise between extreme dissidents and regulars. But his way of running the commission has turned out to be almost as divisive as the convention itself and the Viet Nam issue.

Political Laundry. The McGovern group has angered local party chieftains by its failure to follow protocol in notifying them when it was holding hearings in their states and by its determination to change undemocratic processes of delegate selection. Texas' Governor Preston Smith, incensed when he learned from newspaper articles that McGovern was coming to Austin, fumed, "This is an absurd way of going about this." Democratic National Committeeman J. Marshall Brown of Louisiana was so infuriated at the commission's plans that he "ordered" McGovern to stay out of his state and sent Democratic National Chairman Fred Harris a letter suggesting that he resign. Humphrey himself wrote to tell Brown that his concern was shared by others.

Governor Lester Maddox and party officials of five Southern states boycotted last week's Atlanta hearings, leaving the group to talk only with dissidents who have used the hearing as a sort of political laundry to wash the party's dirty linen publicly.

McGovern once considered resigning, but remained on the job because he believes that only a truly democratic party offers young activists "a hopeful alternative to going to the streets." He readily admits that the commission offended some leaders, but argues that the party's shortcomings are too important to ignore. His findings, though unsurprising, bear him out.

In Georgia, the governor and the state chairman pick convention delegates themselves. In Illinois, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley decides who shall be "elected" and how they shall vote. In other states, precinct caucuses are held without public notice. In Copiah, Miss., a fictitious name was placed on the delegate list.

Limited Confidence. To remedy these abuses, McGovern's commission will suggest popular election of delegates in states that hold primary elections and open-party caucuses in states that do not. Will he succeed? McGovern observes that when a "party faces the choice of reform or death, it usually chooses death," but insists that the Democrats will be different. Ninety percent of the states, he predicts, "will comply." Few share his confidence. The commission's report must be submitted to the 1972 convention for party approval, and many of the delegates, selected under the existing processes, are likely to feel a certain reverence for the system that chose them.

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