YD Executives Will Not Support Teddy Kennedy

The Executive Committee of the Harvard Young Democrats (YDCHR) at a meeting this afternoon will recommend that the club membership refuse to endorse Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy '54 in his bid for the Senate seat once held by his brother, President Kennedy.

The Committee's protest against the younger Kennedy's candidacy will take the form of a resolution asking the club to support only Gubernatorial candidate Endicott "Chub" Peabody in the November election. The resolution will not mention Kennedy at all, and has the asking of a large majority of the Committee's eleven members, Harry F. Greene '63, president of the Young Democrats, said last night.

At the same time, Greene noted that the number of the Committee members personally favor Prof. H. Stuart Hughes, Independent candidate in the Senatorial race. However, all but "one or two" do not think the Young Democrats, as an organization, should back Hughes in November, Greene said. Many committee members will be working for the college division of Democrats for Hughes, he added.

Recommendations from the Executive Committee must be approved by the full membership when it convenes Oct. 4. At that meeting Hughes supporters in the Young Democrats might urge the club to back their candidate, Greene noted. He added that a number of members of Tocsin had joined the Young Democrats this fall, and implied they might have such a plan in mind.

Gitlin Denies Implication

Todd A. Gitlin '63, chairman of Tocain, last night said he has joined the Young Democrats but vigirously denied it was for the purpose of effecting an endorsement for Hughes. "Some Tocain members joined the YD's because they are Democrats and they want to work more closely with formal political organizations," Gitlin said.

Greene listed two principal reasons why he and other Hughes supporters on the Executive Committee will vote against an endorsement by the Young Democrats. The first is that the "Harvard Young Democrats, as an agency of the Democratic party, has a responsibility not to support any candidate against the winner of the Democratic primary," Greene stated.

The second reason harks back to the Young Democrats' endorsement of Kennedy's defeated primary opponent, Attorney General Edward J. McCormack.

Club's Endorsement Condemned

Following the Harvard club's endorsement Richard H. Seidman, chairman of the constitution committee of the National Federation of College Young Democrats (NFCYD) circulated a memorandum saying the action violated the NFCYD By-laws and "the spirit of the Young Democrats," and all-told, was "in very bad taste."

A fairly regular correspondence then ensued with the YDCHR continuing to assert its right to "participate in the policy-making functions of the party," Greene said.

Meeting in Indianapolis the last week in August, the National Executive Committee of the NFCYD passed a resolution condemning all pre-primary endorsements by member clubs.

In light of the YDCHR's insistence on its right to endorse candidates in primaries, endorsement of one of Kennedy's opponents would "open us to a charge of a breach of good faith with the Democratic party," Greene concluded.