McCarthy Hints New Presidential Drive

Former Senator Eugene J. McCarthy--in his first visit of the year to the Harvard campus--told an informal group of about 100 "interested" students at the Signet Club yesterday afternoon that he was a "potential Presidential candidate in '72."

"I have sent workers of mine to organize non-primary states. I hope to control the caucus and delegates to the national convention," he said, adding, "my primary goal is to write the platform and pick the candidate."

Asked whether he might be that "presidential" candidate he answered, "I am a potential one. I will compete in all states where I have a good chance. No one is strong now. If Lindsay is strong in Oregon, he will run. If I would make a better race, I will run. If neither is ahead we will both run."

The important thing is to show that the state is on the whole in favor of what we stand for and this will show what the national Committee should stand for, Larry O'Brien should set a picture of what the people want."

McCarthy stressed that he would not necessarily support the Democratic nominee. "I have severe standards, I will not support just any party nominee," he firmly announced in an interview after his speech at the Harvard Law Forum. McCarthy emphasized how this position differed from that of McGovern who stated unqualifiedly last week that he would support whomever the convention nominated.

McCarthy denied charges that he caused Humphrey's defeat and therefore the conservative balance in the Supreme Court. "There is no evidence my endorsement had any effect on the election at all. That is something columnists write about. Humphrey is better than the rest: he takes the responsibility of defeat on himself."

McCarthy drew a medium-sized and only mildly enthusiastic crowd--with a few people wearing 'Gene lives' buttons--at the Harvard Law Forum where he gave a speech analyzing what he termed the four systems of justice in the United States.

"The first is the ideal one, the one we claim as our system of justice with its constitutional and statutory guarantees...It does exist and operates for most Americans. They must have status, money and one or two other qualifications," McCarthy explained.

"There is a second system of justice for the poor, for members of racial minorities, for the young people of this country, and a third one for those who act against the people subject to the second for the police in Chicago, for the national guardsmen in Ohio for the highway patrol in Jackson State," he continued.

McCarthy concluded that the fourth system of justice is that of the military establishment which reflects within it the same "inadequacies and unfairness that is found in the civilian order."

The most controversial point of his highly cerebral speech was a criticism of the New York Times for agreeing to stop the publication of the Pentagon papers.

"In the whole controversy over the Pentagon Papers the emphasis has been on the right to print. Rather it is the right of a people to hear the truth. The New York Times should not have honored the injunction although it was enjoined by the national government," he proclaimed.

"This was a failure of the press to understand what the freedom of the press really means," he added. "We need a better understanding of what constitutes the right of free speech."

McCarthy's speech, with all its intellectual and historical leanings, failed to present any domestic or foreign program. He finished by comparing the present administration with that of the founding fathers.

"When you consider that we started with George Washington and now have Richard Nixon...that Alexander Hamilton was the first treasurer and now there is John Connally, you hesitate to make projections about the next two hundred years. All I know is that the present administration has not provided a valid response to the ideals of the nation. That will be the goal of '72 and also that of '76. So that is where we are," he concluded.

In the question and answer period after the speech McCarthy said he was not in favor of an all volunteer army which he felt would be as "unrepresentative as the present one"; he announced his belief in the "legal and moral obligation to insure the integrity of the state of Israel"; and he said that some American forces should remain in Europe.

"America must remain the strongest presence in Europe rather than Germany. We must not allow a situation to develop where Germany becomes the defender of Europe against Russia, a situation which might lead to another general war," he said.

In an unusual prediction of how Marx would describe the economy in twentieth century America. McCarthy pontificated, "If Marx had known about the automobile industry in America he would have said that capitalism was stimulated either by war or the automobile industry.