National Reports
STOREY, WALTER R.
NATIONAL REPORTS Stassen Adopts Conservative Policy In Bid for Philadelphia Mayoralty By Walter R. Storey PHILADELPHIA ONE OF THE MOST OF THE MOST significant mayoralty campaigns in the United...
...NATIONAL REPORTS Stassen Adopts Conservative Policy In Bid for Philadelphia Mayoralty By Walter R. Storey PHILADELPHIA ONE OF THE MOST OF THE MOST significant mayoralty campaigns in the United States this year is taking place here...
...He has taken the police out of politics...
...Stassen has also denounced the city's able Development Coordinator, William L. Rafsky, as a "Socialist...
...The project will cost $100–125 million and become a community of 60,000...
...So far, Stassen doesn't seem to have found any issues that would make independent voters switch to the Republican party...
...We have physical and environmental problems—the movement of people on our highways and through mass transit, the improvement of our water supply, the protection of our air against pollution, the movement of goods through our port, the adjustment of our airports to an era of amazingly swift change, the aging of thousands of residential and business structures, and obsolescence which is the product of time...
...Back in 1951...
...They are likely to be impressed with Senator Clark's view: "When I left the Mayor's Office, a fine start had been made, but there were still many difficult and complex problems...
...It is likely that the voters realize that many of the problems the city now faces are pains of growth, resulting from efforts to meet civic needs...
...The Mayor is reasonably certain that if the voters give him an overwhelming mandate at the polls, he will find a capable man within the ranks of the Democratic machine who will have become convinced that good government is precisely what the voters demand...
...Municipal reform movements usually last but a few years and almost invariably center around one prominent public figure...
...Dick Dilworth has handled these problems with courage, imagination and competence...
...We have economic problems—the maintenance of our central business district, the retention in the city of thousands of factory jobs, the creation of a tax base which will support the public expenditures we need to make the city a good place in which to live and work...
...He has worked for more efficient, unified public transportation, including cooperation between the railroads' commuter lines and the local transit company...
...Quaker City mayors can hold office only two successive terms...
...If Dilworth is re-elected, he must find a qualified successor in his party to carry on his policies...
...His Republican opponent is Harold E. Stassen, former Minnesota Governor and former Presidential advisor on disarmament...
...Richardson Dilworth, one of Pennsylvania's two Democratic standard-bearers of liberalism and local reform since 1947—the other is U.S...
...is running for re-election...
...in the campaign that swept the local Democrats into office, the GOP charge that certain Democrats were Socialists failed to impress the electorate...
...His administration has encouraged and aided the arts, notably the Philadelphia Orchestra and Playhouse-in-the-Park...
...Philadelphia's reform administration has been in office since 1951, when Clark was elected Mayor, and it continued when Dilworth succeeded Clark in 1955...
...about $235 million in new assessable properties will result from the entire urban renewal program...
...Some observers thought that Stassen would campaign for Mayor as a liberal, or Eisenhower, Republican...
...Philadelphia is the national leader in urban renewal, with plans underway for the 2,140-acre Eastwick site, the largest redevelopment project in the U.S...
...But early this summer, he surprised and dismayed even the conservative Philadelphia Inquirer by promising to stop U.S...
...Dilworth is now convinced that reform forces will receive a powerful impetus if he not only defeats Stassen, but runs considerably ahead of the rest of the Democratic ticket...
...One of the great contributions he has made is that he has kept the 'good government team' of department heads and administrators...
...Senator Joseph S. Clark Jr...
...Mayor Dilworth has campaigned for Federal assistance for urban areas...
...Here is the Mayor's summary of the problems this and other great cities face: "No community can be immune to strains and stresses, to deterioration, decay and reconstruction, to the demands of population explosion, a technological revolution, a standard of living which makes it clear that the things we accepted in the past are not sufficient for this day and tomorrow...
...He has taken his program to the voters in television programs, and in his famous letters to the editors of the metropolitan dailies...
...citizens from the South from coming here and receiving public assistance...
Vol. 42 • October 1959 • No. 37
