The Democratic Party must build its personalities into national figures if it is to beat Richard Nixon for the Presidency in 1960, Henry M. Jackson, Senator from Washington, declared yesterday.

Speaking before a combined meeting of the Law School and the N.E. Intercollegiate Democratic Clubs in Harkness Commons, Jackson stressed that personalities have superseded issues as determinant factors in present-day elections.

"The Republican Party is the one unchanging thing in a changing world," Jackson charged. While the Democrats have demonstrated a capacity to deal with the complex problems of the 20th century, the GOP took 20 years merely to understand the need for the New Deal reforms, he asserted.

He refuted the contention that his party was divided, and said instead that in areas where the two-party system functions, such as the North, the Mid- west, the West, and the East, the party is completely united. Only in the South, where there is no two-party system, does a split exist, he claimed.

Preceding the speech, the Radcliffe Young Democratic Club, with a paid membership of 30, was chartered by the NEIDC.