Liberal Leaders Divide on Support Of State Candidates in ADA Dispute

Six prominent liberals wrestled with the question of how a Massachusetts liberal should vote next Tuesday and emerged with widely diverging answers at an A.D.A. sponsored forum at the Harvard Club last night.

The two University representatives on the panel, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. '38, professor of History, and Mark DeWolfe Howe '28, professor of Law, expressed agreement on the need for a national Democratic victory. But they ended up on opposite sides of the political fence in their choice of state candidates.

Schlesinger assailed Democratic senatorial candidate Foster Furcolo and praised Democratic gubernatorial candidate Robert F. Murphy. Howe, meanwhile, urged the election of Furcolo, but endorsed Republican Christian Herter in his bid for re-election as governer.

The other speakers displayed an equivalent lack of unanimity, particularly in their views of the senatorial campaign, which has presented a dilemma for the A.D.A. state chairman LaRue Brown '04 denounced Furcolo. Hector M. Holmes '06, head of the Boston law firm, contented himself with endorsing Herter for governor. Joseph Cass, political action director of the state C.I.O. and the only non-A.D.A. member of the panel, completed the confusion by going down the line for the Democratic ticket.

As expected, the harshest words of the evening were reserved for Furcolo. "A vote for Foster Furcolo," said Schlesinger, "would be a vote for a young Pat McCarran in the U.S. Senate"

Howe and Burns joined in deploring the candidate's views on the A.D.A., but argued that Democratic reorganization of Congress and Senator McCarthy's consequent loss of his committee chairmanship were important enough to justify Furcolo's election.