Brooke and McCormack

Two years ago we reluctantly endorsed Republican John A. Volpe for Governor of Massachusetts, citing the poor quality of his opposition rather than the character of Volpe's own record. Volpe has succeeded only in transforming an undistinguished record into a discouraging one during his second term as governor, and this year he faces an able Democratic challenger: Edward J. McCormack.

Though Volpe managed to get the General Court to pass a sales tax, providing the Commonwealth with much needed additional revenue, the tax measure is virtually his only legislative achievement for the last two years. And the blame for this record cannot be placed on a contumacious legislature; Volpe had few proposals to present.

In education Volpe's activities have been especially disappointing. His heavy-handed reductions in the budget of the University of Massachusetts Medical School have delayed the school's opening and indicated a lack of confidence in the institution which seems to be hampering faculty recruitment attempts. He similarly weakened many of the positive reforms recommended in the Willis-Harrington Education Report by cutting appropriations.

Nor has Volpe always acted with complete sincerity. Three weeks ago, only a month before the election, Volpe announced a complete restudy of the proposed Inner Belt routes. But in February of this year, he called for the same thing. Then in March, Francis Sargent, the Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Works, announced the state's decision to go ahead with the Brookline-Elm St. route and admitted that the state had never made a serious re-examination of the routes at all. No one knows how serious the current re-examination will be, but Cambridge's city manager feels certain that the state will announce its intent in early December to proceed with the Brookline-Elm St. route -- safely after the election.

After the raucous 1950's the quiet business-like administration offered by John Volpe was attractive to the Massachusetts electorate, but the voters should be wary of keeping such a man in office for four more years. Massachusetts can no longer neglect her obligations in education, justice, and administrative and constitutional reform. The interference of Peter Volpe, the governor's brother, in the selection of architects at the University of Massachusetts and the re-examination of the Inner Belt indicate perhaps the Commonwealth's government is being conducted on principles actually too close to those of the business world.

Edward J. McCormack, however, can provide Massachusetts with the imagination necessary to find new solutions to the Commonwealth's problems. Demands for the reform of the General Court have grown louder through the last few years; McCormack has wisely suggested that a study be undertaken first to determine just what the Court's problems are and also to learn if a structural change is the best way to solve them.

But his most striking suggestion is that the state seriously consider a unicameral legislature if in fact the structure of the General Court itself is in need of reform. As McCormack notes, such a change would completely change the informal power patterns through which the members of the Court operate as well as speeding up the conduct of the legislature. Gov. Volpe, however, has proposed only that the House of Representatives be reduced from 240 to 160 members. Volpe himself has yet to explain just what the benefit of such a reduction would be. It would not change the power structure of the legislature; and since so little time is spent in debate, it would not hasten the business of the House. The only possible effect it would have would be to create unequal apportionment.

McCormack was Massachusetts Attorney General from 1958 to 1962 and his work in creating the Division of Civil Rights, now a model for other states, also illustrates an imaginative approach to governmental problems. McCormack secured for the attorney general the right to bring complaints and legal actions against persons engaged in discrimination. This right is usually reserved to aggrieved persons, and in discrimination cases these are usually the very people who would be unable to stand court costs.

Unlike some other Massachusetts Democrats, McCormack has recognized the necessity of a sales tax or some other source of revenue to enable the Commonwealth to operate. If in fact the sales tax should be defeated at the polls next week, McCormack with his wide base of support in the General Court would probably be able to get it through again, but Volpe would not. Anti-sales-tax sentiment is concentrated in the Senate where it is but a variation on anti-Volpe sentiment, a sentiment which grows stronger daily.

Furthermore, McCormack has offered some definite proposals for the next four years, something Volpe has not. Among these are a Department of Justice which would gather within one framework the state's far-flung legal offices and law enforcement agencies. He has also urged the complete implementation of the Willis-Harrington Report recommendations and the creation of a Department of Urban Affairs to coordinate federal, state, and local programs.

Massachusetts voters will decide next week whether they will continue for four more years mediocre government or whether they will place a thoughtful and imaginative administration in office--Edward J. McCormack's administration.