Warning for the Chairmen

In the record books, the score of last week's competition among House Democrats will have to read Aging Conservatives 4, Youngish Reformers 0. The oldsters in the party caucus defeated several moves: to 1) set an age limit of 70 for committee chairmen; 2) restrict them to eight years of service; 3) elect a Northern liberal instead of a Southern conservative to the Ways and Means Committee; 4) oust one incumbent chairman. Yet the ferment itself indicated the changing tone in the tradition-minded House of Representatives; the seniority system is no longer sacrosanct.

The reformers' main target was South Carolina Representative John L. McMillan, 72, who has ruled the District of Columbia Committee for 22 years with a combination of indifference and testiness that has made him unpopular even among his committee colleagues. The capital has no legislative body with power to appropriate funds and is dependent for its allocations upon the Congress, which relies almost entirely upon its D.C. Committees to handle District affairs. A conservative white Southerner, McMillan acts, in effect, as the unelected mayor of a black city. The D.C. Committee has long been disliked by black Washingtonians. Therefore the reformers hoped to replace McMillan with Michigan's Charles Diggs Jr., 48, a black. The vote was 126 to retain McMillan. 96 to oust him, with two ballots for Diggs disqualified. Hence the chairman's plurality was only 28.

No Small Shift. That a vote was taken at all represented some gain for reform, since the appointment of chairmen on the basis of seniority had been virtually automatic since 1910. Last month, each party decided to empower its caucus with what amounts to a veto over such selections. The vote last week was the first attempt to use it.

The rising strength of the liberals was also indicated by the fact that Minnesota's Donald M. Fraser, chairman of the liberal Democratic Study Group, came within 15 votes of defeating Louisiana's Joe D. Waggonner, a conservative with 10 years in Congress, for a seat on the Ways and Means Committee.

While they may be gaining, the reformers obviously still lack enough muscle to convert their ideas into policy. But they seem determined to keep trying, and with increasing prospects of future success. A committee chairman can no longer consider his post an irrevocable gift of the years. Conceded one veteran: "I wouldn't want to be the top man on my committee if my colleagues didn't want me there." As reform is measured in the House of Representatives, that is no small shift.

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