Army of martyrs

AMERICA HUGH BROGAN

Washington—It was impossible to experience the Democratic convention in Chicago without feeling that some sort of turning-point had been passed. Some, no doubt, have very strong reasons for pretending, even to themselves, that nothing happened: most notably Hubert Horatio Humphrey. The majority have no such interest in self-deception. And even the Vice- President must meet disaster in his dreams.

For one school of thought now maintains that he has blown the election. His supporters talk of Mr Nixon's legendary ability to de- feat himself and miss the widest target;. but can even Mr Nixon miss the target now pre- sented by the Democratic party? The position of that party, all agreed, was bad enough even before Chicago, for it was identified with an unpopular President's unpopular policies; with war, inflation, a rising crime-rate, and in- creasing racial commotion. Chicago merely added to its encumbrances.

The Republicans have for years been trying to put across the message that the Democratic party is the creature of big-city bossism: at Chicago it eagerly displayed itself as the puppet of Superboss, Richard J. Daley, Mayor. The followers of Senator Eugene McCarthy de- nounced the 1968 convention as rigged: that contention has now been vindicated on tele- vision before the entire nation. For example, Daley declared that he had no control over the convention on one television channel just as another showed his hirelings pouring into the galleries with hastily printed signs read- ing 'We Love Mayor Daley.' Robert Kennedy used to attack the Old Politics and hail the coming of the New; the conduct of the ruling clique of middle-aged Democrats in brutally silencing their youthful opponents confirmed this thesis, too.

Experienced journalists calculate that Hum- phrey anyway entered the campaign as the underdog in all but one (New York) of the 'Big Seven' states, without most of which he cannot. win. The convention has weakened him further in New York and California, even though Mr Nixon has long enjoyed the status of best-hated man in both areas. Across the nation the partisans of Mr Wallace have been encouraged, and the followers of Senator McCarthy (who has refused to endorse Humphrey) have been embittered. Since these two great outsiders draw most of their strength in the North from Democrats, the Vice-President must be injured by this state of affairs. His one crumb of comfort is that Daley may have consolidated his position in Illinois and be able to deliver the state. But elections are not won with Illinois alone.

It would not, of course, be certainly disastrous were Richard Nixon to become President of the United States. It is true that he is surrounded by advisers whose counsels are unwise and unlovely. But he is an intelli- gent man, whose most pronounced character- istic is a determination to succeed. His administration would be unlikely to launch any radically new departures, which in America's present position is a serious criti-

cism; but that is really the worst that can convincingly be said of it. Mr Nixon's caution would stop him going overboard for the poli- cies of any extreme, right as well as left; and in this he would certainly reflect the deep-

est instincts of his prudent countrymen.

Furthermore, the Republican party is not what it was. Since the early 'sixties a vast amount of new energy and talent has poured into it. A Nixon administration might agreeably surprise a lot of people. And they may be agreeably surprised to get a Humphrey ad- ministration, after all.

So far, the bright side. Unfortunately it is also possible to argue that what happened at Chicago confirms the existence of a crisis be- side which the choice between Humphrey and Nixon is trivial, because each man benefits from, and is powerless to end, a dangerous tide of hatred, anger and fear. This other crisis is symbolised by squat Dick Daley.

Daley is bad-tempered, old-fashioned, paro- chial, proud, sentimental and unscrupulous.

His folly, more than any other single factor, explains what occurred at the convention; yet it is not his alone. It is a folly widespread

among the middle-aged and semi-educated

whom he represents, and who, as yet, play the key role in American mass-politics. It is a

folly which, resenting about equally the threat to the old politics represented by the followers of Kennedy, McCarthy and Martin Luther King, and the threat to its own life- style represented by these same unpatriotic, pot-smoking, long-haired, sexually uninhibited, racially heterogenous youngsters, decided to meet their pressure with force. After the assassination of King there were desolating riots and burnings in Chicago: Daley, dis-

pleased with the prudently relaxed conduct of his police force, issued an order to kill arson- ists and maim looters. In late April the police showed they had got the message by beating up participants and bystanders during a non-

violent peace march in downtown Chicago; the resultant storm of criticism did not deter Daley (who I happen to know is made of vulcanised rubber) from authorising the same behaviour during the convention.

Chicagoans have long licked their lips over

their mayor's power. If the troubles had awakened them to the price they pay for Daley. dom's achievements—gleaming skyscrapers, almost honest city government—they would not have been without value. Unhappily the reverse seems to have happened. Confronted with a barrage of criticism they have closed ranks behind the boss, with his talk of terror- ists and assassination plots—talk which is irrelevant to the gravest charges against the police. Worse still, this attitude is being en. dorsed all over the country.

Two things are certain. First, the forces for change are far stronger than they ap- peared in Chicago. Youth will be served; the war is universally disliked; the Negroes, who scarcely intervened, gain power every day. Second, the forces have a leader who seems to be willing to lead. McCarthy stands at the head of an army of martyrs, and such a good Catholic will not need to be reminded that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church. Humphrey may yet rue the day that he backed the mayor, not the Senator; and it is very safe to say that, if he keeps his hand to the plough, McCarthy will be, if not President, at least the decisive figure in American poli- tics for as long as jt takes to resolve the present issues.