He Put Unity First

VTEIL STAEBLER spent the ■ best years of his political life building and unifying the Michigan Democratie party. It apparntly was for party unity that Staebler stepped down as national committeeman in favor of a Negro, state Sen. Coleman Young. During the fifties, still the Williams era in Michigan politics, it was state chairman Neil Staebler who directed party affairs with big-corporation like efficiency. In election after election, Republicans were turned out of state office and Michigan, once safely Republican, became a marginally Democratie state. Then the Williams star faded. John Swainson became an early has-been. George Romney cut into Democratie bastions (Wayne County, the minority groups) and a younger, more pragmatic and less doctrinaire breed of Democrats assumed leadership posi-j tions. I The passing of Staebler fromj senior spokesman to senior statesJ man has had its disappointmentsl In the Democratie landslide ol 1964, Staebler was trounced ij his race for the governorship. Hel was named to the national com-J mittee post a second time, but thel Staebler influence was on the wane both in Ann Arbor party circles and at the state level. I There are terms which describe long and faithful service in ths party, terms like "hack" and "wheelhorse." They are pejorative terms and as such inappropriate to our task here, which is to briefly take note of one man's distinguished record of public service. "I'm asking people what their wishes are," he said, just before he resigned his post.