GENERATION GAP POINTED UP AT PARTY CONVENTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400030024-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 10, 1998
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: June 5, 1968
• Content Type: NSPR

FOIAb3b
0
Pc; Palo
r. ; CALIF.
Loa
JUN 51968
M - 847,369
__-
S - 1L60
Fra`o6 Gap Po~i'ed
I 151% a&. Coiventon
Impatience of Young, Cautiousness of Old
Shown at Session of Michigan Democrats
CPYRGHT
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-R -2
DETROIT-The reality
f the generation g a p
hone through all the cele-
ration and monotony of
Mate Demo-
r a t invention last
veekend with unmista-
-able brightness and so
he convention became a
icrocosm of one of the
ation's problems.
I Sen. Eugene J.
IcCarthy, almost all ob-
ervers agree, has har-
essed the emotions of
outh and has brought the
isaffected young back in-
o the fold of traditional
olitics.
He probably won two of
l lichigan's 96 votes at the
emocratic National Con-
ention in August and one
f those is said to be
vavering.
Vice President Hum-
hrey, the observers say,
as the greatest problem
n reaching youth, who
new him as a conserva-
ive supported by a con-
ervative establishment.
He will almost certainly
arry a majority-maybe
even a 2-1 majority-of
Michigan's delegation.
Son at college
T h e generation g a p
problem was expressed b
a central :Michigan dele-
gate in a phrase when h
described how his son had
gone off to college to stud
philosophy.
"You know what he'
studying? He's. studyin
extra-tensionali m, that'
what he's stu lc frtl
delegate said in bewilder
ment.
The problem was ex-
pressed it a sotto voce
debate that took place on
the convention floor be-
tween Neil Staebler, the
bushy - brewed, squeaky-
voiced Democratic nation-
al committeeman, and a
small band of young dele-
gates from Kalamazoo.
In a private conversation
on the floor, Arthur Hil-
gart. 32, an economist
working in big business in
Kalamazoo, w a s telling
Staebler he wanted to:
"struggle" but that the old;
pros of the party in his
city had shunted him
aside.
"They just don't care
about issues," Hilgart was
saying. "We try to talk
Vietnam with them. The
people who favor the war
in Vietnam just won't
debate. All they care
about is U13, the repeal of
14B (the T a f t - Hartley
Act's right to work provi-
sion). That's the only issue
there is for them."
CPYRGHT
Stac er, who is 62, then
explained to Hilgart, a
h i n, thoughtful, pip e-
moking representative of
the concerned m i d d l e
class, the need for under-
standing human nature,
for going slow, for ex-
pressing ideas in a manner
that would not irritate all
those around him.
Hilgart and his friends
ripped into the Johnson
Administration f o r n o t
sending enough food to
feed the poor people of
Mississippi.
"You are trying to be
millenial," Staebler re-
plied.
The younger men com-
pared President Johnson
to Hitler and the U.S. role
in Vietnam to that of Nazi
Germany in World War II.
"We are trying to save
the world from ; World
War III, which you guys
will have to fight," Staeb-?
ler said.
Finally, Don Moore, a
young philosophy profes-
sor at Kalamazoo College,
joined Hilgart in com-
plaining about the way the
party had alienated the
young people.
"My wife worked full
time for McCarthy in Indi-
ana," he said. "My stu-
dents went out and pound-
ed the streets for him.
Meanwhile back here in
Michigan we elected a full
slate of delegates to our
county convention and ex
CPYRGHT
petted to elect some
McCarthy delegates to the
national convention.
"But what happened?
The old guard came here
and stole it away from us.
What do I tell my students
when they get back from
California?"
'Stachler replied:
"Tell them that in 10
ears they'll be running
he party. This is a bruis-
ng business and a lot of
rrood purposes get frus-
trated . These kids
want 10 times more pro-
ress in one quarter of the
time than we can soli,"
"These kids won't be in
the party next year," Hil-
gart told Staebler. "They
are fed up."
If the "kids" were fed up
so were Hilgart and
Moore. For 11 years now,
IIilgart said, he has been
fighting the clubby atmos-
phere of the Democratic
Party _ in Kalamazoo and
has not been able to move
the regulars beyond a
discussion of the Taft-
Hartley right to work
provision.
"I sat down and drew up
my own platform of about
40 items," he said, "things
like the FBI and the
subversion that the CIA
practices. There has been
an accretion of power in
this country against liber-
ty and the party doesn't
care."
Finally Staebler broke
away and returned to the
speakers' platform where
he discussed the encoun-
ter with his colleagues.
d - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000400030024-2