Evening star., 1953-12-27
FurcoIo's Speech Seen
Damaging Liberals
Writer Says Boy Stoter
Regards ADA. us Through
By Fronk r. Kent

By Fronk R. Kent
From time to time In this country
new political parties, organizations,
agencies or associations spring into be-
ing and for q while flourish amazingly.
They make their bows with splendid
pronouncementS Of principles and goals
to which few can take exception. Those
well equipped with press agents and
widely known names sometimes get
such q high degree Of publicity that
they can coast along for quite a long
time without the hollow nature of their
claims and their inherent lack Of
strength being revealed.
One of the most prominent of these
in recent years is the so-called Ameri-
cans for Democratic Action. This or
ganization, from the start, has been
extremely left wing or, as it prefers to
call itself. liberal" Among its members
are many of the old Roosevelt and Tru-
man New Dealers and Fair Dealers.
These include Mrs. Roosevelt; her son.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, jr., now an aspir-
ant for the New York Democratic
gubernatorial nomination; Walter
Reuther and q number of CIO SUBJ
leaders, the late venomous Harold Ickes
and many of the old Roosevelt Truman
jobholders. Some Of its presidents have
been good men-not sound, but good
notably former Attorney General Fran
els Biddle, who recently retired.
The resounding resolutions passed
and speeches made at ADA. conven-
tionS always got big plays in the news
papers and more or less gave the i'm
preston that the ADA. represented a
mighty force in the Nation. Its hero
last year - and now - was the noble
Adlai Stevenson, and since the election
apparently it has been dedicated to
correcting the horrible mistake made by
the American people when they voted
out of power the Democrats (entrenched
for 20 years. and elected Gen. Eisen-
hover. For some time past, these
ADA. publicity outbursts have seemed
to become more feeble and, possibly
because of more important news, they
have been rather crowded out of the
headlines. Also, not long ago Mrs.
Roosevelt launched another agency for
saving the country. known as "The
National Issues Committee" While
Mrs r. and young Franklin retain
their ADA. membership, the new
agency appeared rather to overlap and
duplicate. Though relatively little has
been heard of the National Issues
Committee" and it obviously lacks the
ADA. publicity equipment. still it GER
tainly has done the latter no good.
However, no one in either organiza-
ton was quite prepared for the foul
attack made upon the ADA. by
former Democratic Congressman at a
gathering of it's Massachusetts, branch
few days ago.
The mans name is Foster Furcolo,
He is now State Treasurer of Massa-
chusetts and he is being prominently
mentioned in connection with the DEM
ocratic nomination for Governor. At the
meeting in question Mr. Furcolo did
not tell the assembled Americans for
Democratic Action what splendid men
and women they were. He did not tell
them that it is they who should run the
country. He did not speak of the glory
and achievements of the ADA. In
stead, to their utmost surprise, he told
the ADA. members that support Of the
ADA. was killinge burden weaken
ing or defeating Democratic candi-
dates" 1.-THE fact is" he told the ADA.
delegates gathered in their annual con-
vention, "the public is apt to oppose
Immediately whatever you support"
Continuing, Mr.. Furcolo told the dele
gates that you no longer enjoy the
confidence of the people" and that there
is only one question for their considera-
tion-"Should the ADA. continue or
not?"
This question, Mr.. Furcolo said in
effect, applied not only to the Massa-
chusettS branch but to the ADA. ma
tionally. Quite clearly he implied that
the ADA. was through and the best
thing it could do, as one newspaper ex-
pressed it, was Ito crawl into a corner
and quietly die" If words like these had
come from an Eisenhower Republican
or an. Eisenhower Democrat they could
easily have been discounted. But, COM
ing from an influential and aspiring
Democrat, of standing in his commu-
nifty, they cannot help but have a dam
aging effect.
Undoubtedly, the ADA. will have an
explanation. Undoubtedly it's high-pow-
cred publicly boys will use plenty Of
words to show how wrong Mr.. Furcolo
is. how he was "misinterpreted" and
how he does not amount to much of
anything, anyhow. But in their hearts
they will not believe their own stuff.
They were beginning to be little short
Of breath hefOro Mr. T11rcO1o cfry,rly
For the moment he has taken the wind
all out of them. And he did not do Mrs.
RS Committee on National Issues any
good either. 1t may be beyond even the
remarkable talents of Arthur Schle-