Evening star., 1961-12-15
For Display of Unity

~ AASPANJ va navy
The purpose of the unprece-
dented plan, Mr.. Miller said.
is to display unified and posi-
tive Republican. policy ap-
proach at the very beginning
of the 1862 legislative session
and campaign year.
The national chairman, him
self a Representative from up
state New York, is personally
convinced that such an ap-
proach could pay political div
idends for the G.. o. P.
But he made it plain that he
would drop his plans for the
speech if it proved impossible
to win approval for its main
outline from such men as for
mer President Eisenhower,
former Vice President Nixon,
Senate Minority Leader Dirk
sen, House Minority Leader
Halleck, Senator Goldwater of
Arizona and Gov. Rockefeller of
New York.
There's no point in doing
this" he said. IF its only re-
suit is to produce diSsenSion.
The chairman said he would
not approach the men he
named until he had something
on paper to show them" and
he declined to speculate on the
chances of winning agreement
from all of them on what the
speech should say.
An Advance for G. o. p.
The manifesto, if it is deliv-
cred. would mark a long step
forward in the area of oppo-
s1tion party policy-making and
public relations. Over the years.
the party that is out of the
White House has had enormous
difficulty in formulating its pol
icies and making them known
to the public in competition
with the President.
In 1859 and 1860, the Dem
ocratS tried tWo-pronged ef-
fort to cope with this prob
lem, but it was only partially
successful. Vice President john
son, then Senate Majority
Leader, delivered so called
state -of-the Nation" messages
to Senate Democratic caucuSes
at the beginning of each year.
The speeches were general in
nature and contained few leg
islative specifics.
The Democratic Advisory
Council. an adjunct of the
Democratic National Commit
tee. did issue specific legislative
programs in those years, but
their significance was diluted
by the fact that Senator John
son and the other Democratic
legislative leaders boycotted the
Council sessions.
If Mr.. Miller speaks on sub
stantive policy questions as
Republican National Chairman
to caucus of congressional Re-
publicans with the approval of
all the party's senior statesmen
and legislative leaders, his
speech would doubtless have an
impact greater than any of
these past efforts have
achieved.
The speech might even, some
Miller aides belive. be carried
on national radio and televi-
sion, as is the Presidents
state-o the Union message.
AS visualiZed by Mr.. Miller,
the speech would include a crit
ical review of the work of the
Kennedy administration plus a
positive statement of Repub-
1ican policy on as many of the
major issues as it is possible
to formulate agreed-upon posi-
tlonS.
Hopefully, these issues would
include foreign trade, medical
care for the aged, tax reform
and long term unemployment
the so-called Big Four of the
1862 congressional session.
Advantages for G. o. P.
Mr.. Miller said he saw a
number of advantages for the
G. o. P. if it could formu-
late it's basic approach to these
problems early in the year.
First" he said, 1T would
destroy the argument that we
are negative in our approach
that we are only interested in
criticizing what others do.
Second, it would offset the
impression that there is SUBJ
stantial diSunity in the Repub-