'52 Alumna To Try For Senate Seat

"Senator Kennedy welcomes anyone who is inclined to run." --Brian Delaney, Special Assistant to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.)

Mary Shiverick Morss '52 announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts last Monday.

A Springfield silversmith, lapidary and jade carver, Morss said she wants to give an opportunity to the many poverty-stricken people "for whom the door never opens."

Proposing a guaranteed annual income of $10,000 after taxes to all citizens over 18 years of age, Morss said, "Money is the big equalizer." She said she is running her campaign on the "cause of greater equality to all."

According to Morss, the $10,000 per person would come from general revenue and replace money being spent in the existing welfare and poverty programs.

For most bureaucratic politicans, "poverty has become a business," Morss said, adding, "I have never seen Kennedy propose any sort of guaranteed income."

Delaney said that no one had been more outspoken on legislation or more involved in helping the poor than Kennedy. "The Senator is committed to public service, and he always has been," he added.

Calling her background "middle-class," Morss said her upbringing put her in a strong position to "sympathize very much with the poor of this country"--a position a man of Kennedy's wealth would have trouble understanding, she added.

Delaney said Kennedy agrees that "poverty is a burning issue," but that the Senator is hopeful the campaign will be based on the issues.

Morss has previously been involved in Republican politics, serving on the Republican State Committee in 1968. Halfway through her term, Morss said she quit the state committee "with a general sense of disgust" because she saw the "Reagan thing coming."

Morss said she was originally a conservative, but became a Democrat last summer.

While at Radcliffe, Morss said she belonged to the Young Republicans and to the World Federalists, who believe in a "one nation planet." Radcliffe gave her a "very openminded education," she added.

Before her name can officially go on the ballot, Morss must get 10,000 certified signatures from registered Democrats. She currently has no formal endorsements and declined to say which ones are forthcoming.