Restore Democracy to Conventions, End Rule of Few, Galbraith Urges

The convention system of nominating Presidential candidates must "sooner or later" give way to "nomination by vote of the party rank and file," John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, predicted yesterday.

"Not more than a couple of hundred men were effectively involved" in Goldwater's selection, Galbraith claimed. Goldwater lined up the important people in advance of the convention and in advance of any other strong contender," he said.

In an article in the Observer (London) and the Boston Sunday Globe, Galbraith attributed Goldwater's ability to sew up the nomination to modern methods of communication and travel. A comvention, he said, has become "the merest formality." "Had there been more primaries, there would have been no Goldwater," he said.

Galbraith said the Senator drew his support from the "genuine extremists and the lunatic fringe" and from the "Outsiders." He explained that the "Outsiders" were people who could not comprehend the complexities of modern domestic and foreign policy, and that Goldwater satisfied their "Yearning" for a spokesman.

Instead of a contest between "the worried well-to-do and the rest," Galbraith said that "this time the contest was between the Outsiders and the Insiders."

According to Galbraith, there was another reason why a minority regarded Goldwater as "the most significant instrument for political purification since Savonarola." Many people, he explained, confused by statements that seem to conflict with policy as it is practiced, conclude that "the men in charge... cannot be living by their expressed views." These people tend to search, he said, for someone whose words and deeds will be consistent.