Union Leader Publisher Says Party System Lacks Division

William Loeb, publisher of the Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader, said last night that the present party system in the United States is suffering from a lack of the "logical division of liberals on one side and conservatives on the other."

Speaking before a Harvard Republican Club audience of about 75 people in Emerson Hall last night, Loeb said that the confusion is illustrated by the fact that the Congress is moving to the left while public opinion polls indicate a conservative trend among the public.

Loeb said that a third party movement is possible, though not in the near future, because voters are "too sophisticated to take the gobbledygook they're getting from both parties."

With a small American flag pinned to his lapel, Loeb made his own ideological leanings perfectly obvious in a question-and-answer session.

Loeb said the educational process is an enemy of the public welfare at this time because it produces too many biased liberals, especially among the press.

He also defended support of the regimes of South Vietnam, South Korea and Chile, called "reactionary" by his questioners, on the grounds of national security and national defense and because "they're on our side."

He criticized the handling of the Vietnam war, saying that America should never have become involved in an Asian land war. "We should have finished off North Vietnam with planes in three weeks," he said, as a murmur rose in the audience.

Loeb also said he would not rule out the possibility of an invasion of an oil-rich nation if a Manhattan-type project oriented towards energy were to fail.

Loeb said that President Ford is "one of the nicest, most decent" men, but added that the Nixon pardon and the mentioning of draft amnesty were ill-timed political moves.

"God did not bless him with an awful lot above the eyes," he said. "I'm afraid Gerry is a jerk."

Loeb justified his Union Leader policy of front-page editorials which employ such colorful nicknames as "The Skunk" for Eugene McCarthy and "Moscow Muskie" For Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D-Me.) on the grounds that he thus "stirs up his readers" and "creates excitement."

The Manchester Union Leader is the most widely circulated newspaper in New Hampshire and the only one in Manchester.