Clark Pledges Support To Anti-Filibuster Vote

Senator-elect and Harvard Overseer, Joseph S. Clark, Jr. '23 announced last night that he would join the ranks of Senate liberals in the fight to curb the filibuster when Congress convenes in January.

He said he had campaigned "on the promise to work for a liberalization of Senate Rule XXII, to achieve a more reasonable cloture." Rule XXII permits closing of debate only upon the vote of two-thirds of the members or 64 Senators.

Clark thus became the ninth Senator to announce publicly that he would vote to change the filibuster rule, which allows virtually unlimited debate, and results in the killing of most civil rights legislation.

In an exclusive interview with the CRIMSON, Clark, who was in Cambridge yesterday to attend meetings of the Board of Overseers, declared that he would also vote against the reelection of Senator James O. Eastland (D-Miss.) to the chairmanship of the important Judiciary Committee, which handles civil rights legislation.

Defeats Incumbent

Six Democratic Senators, led by Hubert H. Humphrey (Minn.) and Paul Douglas (Ill.), initiated this newest attempt to revise Rule XXII. The six northern Democratic liberals were joined recently by two Eastern Republicans, Irving Ives (N.Y.) and Clifford Case (N.J.).

Clark defeated incumbent James Duff in the Nov. 6 election, despite the fact that Eisenhower swept Pennsylvania by 592,000 votes.

Because the seniority rule works alphabetically within each class of Senators, Clark will have third choice of committee assignment among freshman Democrats, following John Carroll (Colo.) and Frank Church (Ida.). He said that perhaps he would receive an appointment to the Banking and Currency Committee, where he would specialize in urban re-development, slum clearance, and housing. He expressed doubt that he would be placed on the Judiciary Committee, because of his forthright civil rights position.