For Senator: Foster Furcolo

While we favor the election of a Democratic Congress, as yesterday's editorial pointed out, we in no sense endorse every politician who campaigns on the Democratic ticket. But in an election involving two men whose faults roughly balance, we would favor the Democrat over the Republican as a step towards Democratic control of Congress.

The Senatorial contest in Massachusetts is just such an election. The incumbent, Republican Senator Leverett Saltonstall, is a plodder who has given the Eisenhower Administration strong support. The Democratic candidate, Foster Furcolo, has had an excellent voting record, but has spotted it by surrendering to the rankest form of political expediency.

But then, Massachusetts has never demanded frankness from its candidates. There are so many significant ethnic groups that a politician must always consider that what he says may turn one of them against him. Often, he will find security in discreet silence. Thus, because of the large Irish and other Catholic votes in the Boston area, neither Saltonstall nor Furcolo has dared to mention McCarthy in his campaign.

Characteristically, too, Massachusetts Senatorial campaigns are fought much more on strictly local issues than in most states. Each candidate tries to outdo the other in promising lucrative chunks from the federal pork barrel. Yet pork barrel politics are a relatively minor part of the role the winner would play as a U.S. Senator. Since he will then help shape policy for the whole country, he should be elected on the basis of his past positions on national affairs.

Furcolo had an excellent record as a member of the House of Representatives. So good in fact that in 1950 the Washington Press Club chose him as one of the ten best first-term legislators. His voting followed the pattern set by the Northern wing of the Democratic party--strongly in favor of internationalist legislation such as Point Four and Mutual Security Aid, extended reciprocal trade agreements, as well as liberal welfare and social legislation. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, he continually advocated strong defense appropriations.

Policy, Not Personalities

While Saltonstall's voting record is not as good, he has served the Administration well in its battles with Republican isolationists of the inland states. On the whole, however, he has followed the Eastern Republican policy of talking internationalism while at the same time making cuts in foreign aid programs. Unlike Furcolo, he has followed projectionist principles in voting for import restrictions. Also, he has never supported extensive social and welfare legislation. In the last Congress, he voted to give the tidelands oil to the states, although Massachusetts would have benefited had the land remained under federal jurisdiction. Saltonstall also voted in favor of the Dixon-Yates power deal.

Saltonstall's backers admit his record is not especially impressive, but say that his most important work was done in the secrecy of the Armed Services Committee, and is therefore off the record. This may be true, but if it is, Saltonstall, as Chairman, must have had a significant role in shaping the Administration's "bigger bang for a buck" policy that brought drastic cuts in U.S. military strength. The prudent economy of the "old Yankee," as Saltonstall is sometimes pictured in his campaign posters, is a little useless when it weakens the nation. Such policies led to significant loss of U.S. prestige when the country was asked to put up or shut up in Indo-China.

Although Saltonstall is running against a candidate with a better voting record, his stolid dignity points up the politicking of his opponent. Furcolo can only be censured for his speech before the ADA last spring in which he advised the group to disband. Both candidates, indeed, could be criticized for not taking a stand against McCarthy. But while a man may be measured by these standards, a politician should not be. If Saltonstall had an equally good legislative record, he would be the better candidate. But a voter makes his choice on the basis of policy, not personalities. On such a basis, Furcolo deserves election.