Kennedy Picks Scholars To Advise Mass. Dems

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54; (D-Mass.) yesterday named three Harvard professors to an Advisory Council to revitalize the Massachusetts Democratic Party.

Samuel H. Beer, professor of Government, John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, director of the Harvard-M.I.T. Joint Center for Urban Studies were among sixteen prominent citizens named to help formulate Democratic party policy.

The group will research such areas as medical care, mental health, education, urban renewal, transportation, welfare and pollution, Kennedy said.

The Council will advise the state Democratic leadership, Kennedy said, and will be more responsive to the needs of the people. He stressed, however, that the group will seek full cooperation with the State Committee and the State Legislature.

Kennedy stated the need for a continuing dialogue between the "theorists and the activists" which would "help our party produce imaginative yet practical programs."

The Advisory Council may be expanded as new areas require detailed study, he said. In addition the council may set up task forces under its jurisdiction for further policy studies.

One of the first areas the council will study is the growing financial importance of Federal-State government relations. Beer, a specialist in this area, said yesterday that the Council will make sure the state takes maximum advantage of opportunities to obtain Federal money for state projects. The growing importance of Federal money in state politics, Beer explained, is one of the main forces behind Kennedy's increasing role in Massachusetts internal politics.

Political observers have recently maintained that the Democratic party, which has not won an important state office in either of the last two elections, needs a major overhaul of both policies and candidates if it is to recapture the State House in 1970.

These pundits feel that in creating the advisory Council, Kennedy will strengthen his own hold over the party.

Other members of the advisory council are: James MacGregor Burns, professor of History at Williams College; Dr. Harold Case, President of Boston University; Arthur J. Gartland, President of Action for Boston Development Committee; James Gavin, chairman of Arthur D. Little Co.; Eli Goldsten, president of Eastern Gas and Fuel Associates; Dr. Patricia Chairman of the History Department, State College, Lowell Mass.