Evening star., 1957-04-21
WELL-QUALIFlED FRIEND
Clark Has Sovvy
On City Problems
BY JAMES G. DEANE


The Nations Capital seems to
have acquired a new friend-and an
unusually well-qualif1ed one-on
Capitol Hill.
He is Joseph Sill Clark, the new
Senator from Pennsylvania and ex-
reform mayor of Philadelphia, now
freshman member Of the Senate
District Committee.
Senator Clark got to Washington
by upsetting Republican James H.
Duff in defiance of the Eisenhower
presidential landslide. A factor in
that upset was the fame he
achieved as the Democratic mayor
who succeeded 81 years Of Repub-
lican-machine rule in Philadelphia
ungainly City Hall and started eras-
ing the scars Of decades of civic
apathy and corruption.
He got on the District Committee,
not because of this spectacular
background. but because it is SEN
ate custom to put freshman Sena-
tors there But the assignment, in
his case, is an unusually appropriate
one. And the Senator is showing
signs Of taking it more than rou-
timely.
Senator Clark surprises Washing
tonians meeting him for the first
time. Although he is SIS. newspaper
and magazine articles until re-
Gently were still calling him, with
some accuracy, "boyish." He lacks
political pomp and paunch. having
instead the brisk presence Of a busy
and well-exercised business. His
speech is polished. as BELTS his
background Harvard, magma cum
laude and Phi Beta Kappa, but he
is capable of stating bluntly-as he
did recently-that Congress has
welshed on its financial obligations
to the District.
He is ardently involved with
Americans for Democratic Action,
which presumably makes him an
authentic reformer, but his mu-
nicipal experience led him to
sympathize during a recent hear
ing with the District Commission
ers' practical difficulties in meeting
the city's bills.
In the Roosevelt Trodition
Senator Clark's family back
ground-his grandfather was a
banker, and the Senator now owns
oil-should logically have produced
a conservative Republican. Instead.
like Franklin Roosevelt. Adlai Ste
venson and Averell Hartman, he
has turned out. as one Philadel-
phia newspaperman recently wrote.
"the prototype of the liberal
Northern Democrat"
The Senator has confused the is
sue somewhat by calling himself,
on at least one occasion, a right
wing New Dealer" which even his
own aides can't translate with any
success. But the record sug-
gests that a precise label, in
itself. is of small consequence.
The Democratic Clark admin
istration worked closely with
businessmen. and 100000 Repub-
licans voted for it. tThe reformers
are still in power. under a close
Clark associate. Mayor Richardson
Dilworthl. And Republican votes
helped send ex-Mayor Clark to the
Senate What was important was
the label of reform. In Philadel-
phia. it evidently is still popular.
Philadelphia reform tackled prob
lens which have parallels here.
Through combined efforts of the
Pennsylvania Railroad. developers
and the Clark administration. the
ancient Chinese wall" leading to
the Pennsy's old Broad street sta
ton has given way to the giant
new Penn Center office-shopping-
hotel complex. which has attracted
national notice and removed blight
at the city's center Redevelopment
is going on elsewhere. including
around historic independence Hall.
Police and fire departments have
been reorganized. and the public
school system improved. A munic-
ipal information department was
created to handle citizen COM
plants, and the city budget was
rewritten so more than Philadel-
phia lawyers can understand it.
A commission on human rights
was created--first in any city-to
combat discrimination. The city is
pushing building code and health
enforcement, and building new
highways.
Senator Clark. who is working
on a book on the subject. thinks