House Majority Leader Speaks On Politics to HYDC Members

Eighteen members of the HYDC gathered last night to hear House majority leader John W. McCormack (D, Mass.) tell of his 31 years in Congress.

"To me there is no more honorable ambition one can entertain than a career in elective offices," McCormack told the Young Democrats. "And although I am a great believer in the two-party system," he continued, "I feel that the Republican Party is the party of status quo; the Democrats represent progress."

McCormack, "more or less talking philosophically," charged that the policies of the Republican Party are made by men behind the scenes who do not run for election. Attacking Madison Avenue, the Republican press, and the "broken promises of the present Administration," he asserted that the great majority of Republicans in the halls of Congress oppose progressive legislation.

McCormack went on to thank God that Americans are citizens of a great agricultural nation.

Replying to a question, McCormack explained why he remains on the House Committee on Government Operations. He said that he had been chairman of the committee, but had stepped down to let "a great American," Bill Dawson, the first Negro chairman of a House Committee take over. "I stay on, because I know he'd feel heartbroken if I were to resign," McCormack declared.

Asked about the National Defense Education Act, he asserted that Boston University's stand was "wiser' than Harvards outright rejection of government funds. B.U. has permitted students to participate in the loan program for one more year, "giving Congress a chance to work things out," he said. McCormack evaded questions concerning the fate of any bill in the next Congress which called for repeal of the loyalty affidavit requirement.