Current of Concern

Lincoln Day is the annual occasion for Republican orators to take to the field, potshot at the opposition, and praise the Grand Old Party. Last week there was plenty of potshotting and praising. In Niagara Falls, New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller charged the Democratic Administration and Congress with a civil-rights record that "must constitute one of the most cynical exploitations of minority aspirations that has ever occurred in the history of American politics." Gibed G.O.P. National Committee Chairman William Miller in Battle Creek, Mich.: "To get a real top job in the New Frontier, you first must have failed in everything you ever tried to do." In Independence. Kans., Texas' Senator John Tower warned that the "survival of Western civilization depends upon a Republican victory in 1962."

Out of Touch. But beneath much of the speechmaking ran a current of concern about the state of the Republican Party itself. In Pittsburgh, Hawaii's Senator Hiram Fong asked if the G.O.P. had "lost touch with millions upon millions of our fellow Americans who no longer regard Republicans as their champions?" Said Fong: "The preponderance of evidence suggests we have increasingly lost support of the people. Surveys show that Republicans fail to command majority allegiance of a single major group in America."

Other Republicans were worried about the split on the far right. In Brooklyn, New York's Senator Jacob K. Javits said that the party was doomed if it accepted the "freakish ideas" of those who sought to "repudiate the 20th century." Massachusetts' Leverett Saltonstall told a Seattle audience: "We won't survive by saying 'I won't play' -- or by finding an enemy under every rug." Arizona's Senator Barry Goldwater, who got a two-minute ovation when he was introduced to a crowd of 13,000 in Cincinnati, pleaded for unity: "Let's forget about being Nixon Republicans or Rockefeller Republicans --stop trying to pigeon hole ourselves. We're not far apart. From the middle of the Republican road to the far right is a mighty small way."

Speaking in Bangor, Maine's Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith was critical of "defeatism within Republican ranks," suggested that three top G.O.P. presidential possibilities -- Nixon, Rockefeller, Goldwater -- are afraid to run against Kennedy in 1964. Said she: "The impression, whether it be right or wrong, fair or unfair, is that they have refused to be the 1964 nominee because they don't think President Kennedy can be beaten and believe that the Republicans can't win." Thus, she said, the name of George Romney, who only last fortnight announced that he would run this year for Governor of Michigan, has been widely mentioned for 1964. Said Maggie Smith: "This rarity in agreement makes me wonder--and I say very carefully to you that I do not make any charge--I merely wonder if the really true role contemplated for George Romney is to be the sacrificial lamb on the Republican altar in 1964."

On the Rise. There is, in fact, considerable cause for Republican concern about the party's future. Pollsters and pundits declare that President Kennedy is riding a popularity crest, that G.O.P. prospects are dim for this year's congressional elections. But pollsters and pundits do not decide elections, and much of the hand wringing is premature. It would require only a few major slips for Kennedy to drop dramatically from national esteem.

In eight congressional by-elections, Republican candidates have upped the party's vote by an average of 13.3% over 1960.* And Republican leaders in the Midwest, Far West and even the South report substantive hopes of increasing the G.O.P.'s holdings in November.

* In a special congressional election last week, Michigan's Fourteenth District, a longtime Democratic stronghold, kept up the tradition by electing Democrat Harold M. Ryan--but by a harrowing margin of just 767 votes.

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