Atty. Gen. Brooke Asks Republicans Change Party's Image, Leaders

"Republicans today, across the Massachusetts Edward W. Brooke told an audience of 300 at the Law School Forum last night. The Democratic surge effective opposition impossible.

The Attorney General said that the "wide gap between the thinking of the leaders, so called, and the members" is the Republican Party's greatest problem. To revive the party, he indicated, it necessary to remove some of the GOP's leaders.

Brooke recommended a strong to meet the "challenge of change." appealed to intellectuals and young people to follow the "strains of liberalism, progressivism, and modernism" which are in the party.

George Cabot Lodge '50, lecturer on administration and Gerald Doherty '48, chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee spoke after Brooke.

Doherty, given minutes by the moderator "to represent the other party," attributed the success of the Democrats to their "freedom of access for young people, intellectuals, peoples of all races and creeds." Lodge surpassed Brooke in calling for a vigorous Republican program, saying that "radical changes" were necessary. He warned of a third party if radical leadership did not emerge from either existing one.

Not in Touch

Since Goldwater's defeat, the leaders of the Republica Party have been Congressmen, mostly from rural areas, Brooke explained. These men, he suggested, are not in touch with the modern problems of cities and urban development.

Brooke cited education, transportation, and anti-poverty as areas in which the Republicans could create new programs. He attacked the War on Poverty program for its reliance on local city organizations. "What the poverty stricken need," he said, "is to learn to organize to face municipal machinery."

Brooke was optimistic about the future, seeing "rays of hope" through the "gloomy registration statistics."