Stevenson Invited to Join Party Strategy Committee

Defeated presidential candidate Adlai E. Stevenson has been appointed to the special top-level Democratic advisory committee to frame legislative proposals, he revealed yesterday.

Stevenson said last night that he had "not yet accepted," but his discussion of it earlier in the day indicated that he would.

The former Illinois Governor was in Cambridge visiting his grandson, Adlai E. Stevenson IV, who was four weeks old yesterday, the boy's parents, Adlai E. Stevenson III '52, 3L and his wife Nancy, and his two other sons, Borden Stevenson 1L, and John Fell Stevenson '58.

Stevenson's appointment to the committee, of which no other members have been named, constitutes a significant step in trying to insure the influence of the group, for, despite his recent defeat, he remains the party's most articulate and commanding figure.

Last week the Executive Committee of the National Committee authorized National Chairman Paul H. Butler to appoint the group, in response to pressure from big-city leaders who felt that the party was losing ground in its traditionally strong areas. They maintained that only by pushing a vigorous legislative program in Congress could the party regain this support. Senate majority leader Lyndon Johnson has opposed this course, contending that the Democrats should offer no program until President Eisenhower has produced one, which they might then seek to change or replace.

The Northern Democratic attempt to create a continuing idea and strategy group for the defeated party is a plan which has been tried unsuccessfully be- fore. The appointment of Stevenson might tend to give more weight to the recommendations of the committee to Congressional leader. Southern conservative leadership, however, which holds nine of sixteen Senate committee chairmanships cannot be expected to give in quickly to any demands to reverse its tactics of agreeing and working with President Eisenhower.

For Stevenson it also represents an important step in determining his future political role. If he accepts, he may appear to be aligning himself with the dissatisfied Northern liberal faction, while in the past he has been primarily a moderate figure in the party.

Interviewed in the early afternoon, Stevenson said, "I am on that committee" in reference to the group, while in the evening he said, "I have been appointed to that committee, but I haven't accepted yet. I'm going to do something about that sometime next week.

His discussion of the issue of proposing legislation indicated a sympathy with the group and its objectives. He called for "a searching, creative opposition," saying he had "always been in favor of the Democratic Party's having a legislative program of its own, especially when it's a majority party, as it is now."

He believed that when an opposition party was in a Congressional minority, it should concentrate on continual "constructive criticism, but that when it achieved a majority in the Congress, it had a responsibility to offer a legislative program of its own as well."

One of the key issues in the North-South conflict is that of the filibuster. An opening day attempt will be made to change Senate Rule XXII to facilitate limitation of debate, and Stevenson said he was "very much in favor" of this change. He said he had been "largely instrumental" in having a pledge to change the rule included in this year's party platform