Toppling the Titans

At past conventions it would have been unthinkable to treat those two titans of Democratic politics--AFL-CIO President George Meany and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley--with anything but deference and respect. Between them, they were supposed to hold the balance of victory and defeat for the presidential nominee. Yet last week the unthinkable happened. Meany and Daley were not only slighted, they were not in evidence at the convention and openly mocked. The nominee himself set the tone when he told reporters that he did not think it would be "fatal" if Meany and Daley failed to endorse him. "I don't think my chances of winning the election depend on unanimous support of the little oligarchy at the top. If they did, I would never be where I am now because I certainly haven't had much help from them along the way."

How McGovern gets along without Meany and Daley will be the ultimate test of the New Politics. If McGovern can win without them, he will have proved that a candidate can bypass such traditional intermediaries and go directly to the people. He will have shown both the labor hierarchy and the big-city machine to be in a more advanced state of decay than anybody had thought. At this point it looks as if McGovern will have to do without their services. Both Meany and Daley have made it clear that they have been mortally offended, and neither is one to forgive or forget an insult, much less a public humiliation.

"This man's ideas aren't liberal," growled Meany last week. "This man's ideas are crazy." Meany's anger has been building up. It is not just that he objects to McGovern's positions on such issues as pot, abortion and the Viet Nam War. He has also developed a distrust of the candidate that aides feel can never be dispelled. The antagonism dates back to 1962, when McGovern ran for the Senate from South Dakota. Hard-pressed for cash in a tough campaign, he asked the AFL-CIO for a $30,000 loan. The request came to Meany, who ordered: "Give him the money." With that, Meany concluded that he had another Senator who was safe for labor.

That turned out to be only partly true. McGovern dutifully voted the labor line much of the time, but he flunked one crucial test. He voted against cutting off a filibuster that was preventing a vote on repeal of the right-to-work provision of the Taft-Hartley Act--a sacred matter with labor. He subsequently cast many other votes that were considered antilabor. To Meany, he was an ingrate. He made no notable effort to conciliate the labor chieftain. Typically, he said that since he had made a mistake on right-to-work, Meany should confess that he had been wrong about the Viet Nam War. By convention time, Meany was mad enough to have the AFL-CIO distribute a 46-page attack on McGovern's legislative record --as if McGovern were the Republican presidential candidate. Most of the rest of big labor is following Meany's lead. Unless he relents, they will not yield, either. It could cost McGovern help at the polls as well as $5,000,000 in labor campaign funds.

Initially, Daley was not as angry at

McGovern as Meany was. McGovern did not encourage delegates to file in his behalf in Chicago; he wanted the mayor's support if it was at all possible. But he forfeited it when Daley's delegates were replaced at the convention by the challengers, including some of the mayor's sworn enemies, among them Alderman William Singer. Watching the proceedings from a distance at his summer home in Michigan, the mayor maintained an ominous silence while his supporters vowed that they would never back McGovern. Said Chicago Alderman Vito Marzullo: "Only the Lord or Mayor Daley could activate me for McGovern."

At this point the Lord would be the better bet. "To Daley," says an aide, "McGovern is the classic Methodist --the kind of guy who doesn't sweat. No one is more difficult for an Irish Catholic to get along with than one of those non-sweating Methodists." As devout a Democrat as he is a Catholic, Daley would agonize over abandoning the presidential nominee. But short of that drastic step, there is plenty he can do to express his displeasure with McGovern. He can cut off Cook County funds to McGovern or hamper the distribution of his literature or harass his workers. On Election Day, Daley's precinct workers will be strategically stationed at polling places. Conceivably, Daley's services may not be as indispensable as they once were--at least so the McGovern forces hope. A group of reformers called the Independent Precinct Organization, led by Bill Singer, have developed a grass-roots organization that has proved as effective as Daley's in some local races. If it can be mobilized for McGovern, it might do the work that Daley seems likely to shun. Then, too, Daley might eventually be moved to help McGovern--a little.

If Meany and Daley remain hostile to McGovern in the campaign or are at least neutralized, President Nixon has an advantage he would not have dreamed possible before the convention. Spokesmen for the Old Politics though they may be, the two bosses have enormous appeal for a large part of the electorate--the "ethnics," the kind of voter that was underrepresented at the Democratic Convention and is likely to resent McGovern. If these voters switch to the Republicans in large numbers, a sizable chunk of the Democratic coalition will disappear. Would Meany and Daley, loyal Democrats all these years, welcome such a development? In the past, they have taken exception to the President. Yet they have also learned to live with him, though not very comfortably. They are not sure they would be as comfortable with McGovern, who so far has made life distinctly troublesome for them. They might be willing to wait out another four years of Republican rule in order to get the kind of Democrat they want. It is Candidate George McGovern's task to convince them that it is not worth the wait, that even if he is not their kind of Democrat, it is still in their interest to support him in the coming campaign.

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