Abstract

The Picture in Pennsylvania

The sudden appearance of former career diplomat George F. Kennan on the Pennsylvania political scene was interpreted, no doubt fairly correctly, as an expression of his desire to combat what he had described last May in a forthright speech at Notre Dame University as forces at large in the society engaged in the profession of denunciation. Even before his retirement from the foreign service in April of last year, Kennan had made no secret of his alarm at what members of those forces were doing to the morale of this country's diplomatic corps. George Leader, the youngest potential Pennsylvania governor of the century, has exhibited in four years in the state senate a remarkable grasp of public affairs and a sound liberal philosophy of government. One of six senators to vote against the so-called Pennsylvania "loyalty oath" bill, he explained his position in a speech eloquently citing the traditional religious freedoms of Pennsylvania as established by the founding Quakers and invoicing the worth and dignity of the individual conscience.