GOP Attacks Waste, Promises Economy At Local Forum

"Economy," the one-word platform of Oscar S. Burrows, candidate for State Representative, was the keynote of the primarily Republican group of candidates for office, speaking at the Hotel Commander last night. Few Democrats were present at the forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters, due to a $100-a-plate dinner for former President Truman in Boston.

Charles Gibbons, Republican candidate for Governor, expressed party feeling as he attacked the Democrats for the unbalanced budget enacted in the latest Massachusetts legislative session.

"Social progress must keep pace with expansion," he said, "but under the State Constitution, which requires a balanced budget, a special session of the General Court must now be called to vote new taxes of $40 to $50 million." He would hesitate, he said, to enact a program involving such heavy taxation.

Seymour E. Harris '20, Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Political Economy, said, however, that Republicans in the national government had not done enough in the present recession. He claimed that they had helped to bring it about, and had then taken inadequate measures to combat it. He predicted that the Democrats would adopt a more vigorous program if elected.