Labour Support

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30531, 28 August 1964, Page 11

Labour Support

As a teacher, he advocated active participation in politics and made his own first venture by running for Mayor of Minneapolis in 1943. He was defeated but was elected two years later and won re-election in 1947, helping to set up a strong party machine in the State under the Democrat-Farmer-Labour Party. In 1948, with strong support from Labour, he ran for the United States Senate against the Republican incumbent. He was re-elected in 1954 and again in 1960. As a Senator, he worked hard on committees and for such varied causes as farm supports, prices, prevention of cruelty to animals, increased defence spending, broadened foreign aid programmes and expanded welfare benefits. He made a deliberate bid to establish friendly relations with Senators —like Lyndon Johnson—from the Southern States and won respect from them in spite of his civil rights stand. In 1960, Senator Humphrey declared himself early as a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination. He campaigned hard during early months of that year but publicly withdrew in May when Senator Kennedy won a sur-

prising victory in the West Virginia primary—a major step which led the Massachusetts Senator to the White House. Then he dedicated himself to mastering his own State, winning his re-election and then taking on the exacting task of Democratic whip in the Senate, with the job of managing many Administration bills.