Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-11-08

forty-six states Of the Union will choose
3S5 representatives in Congress, who will
with the four representatives from
Maine and the two from Vermont al
ready elected) compose the House OF
Representatives in the Sixty-second Con-
gress Of the United States of America.
Today, also, in many states legislatures
will be selected to choose successors to
thirty senators whose terms expire
March 3, 1911.
In the campaign which ended last night
the historic republican and democratic
parties have faced each other in sort
of guerrilla warfare. Although the tarin
question perhaps has been the most
prominent issue in the campaign, neither
party is united on that or any other
pressing political problem. In each state,
and to some extent in each congressional
district. the issues have shaped them
selves largely with respect to local con-
ditions, and with but little regard lor
the national party organization. Ihere
are regular republicans and insurgent
republicans; there are conservative demo-
Gratis and radical democrats; there are
Cannon republicans and anti-Cannon re-
publicans: there are anti-Cannon demo-
Gratis and some few Cannon democrats.
There are progressive republicans and
progressive democrats opposed to conser-
vative democrats and conservative repuD-
Leans. 1t is an "off' year, and no mat
ter what may be the result when the
ballots are counted tonight wise poll
ticians will not be astonished. ::
If the republicans elect majority OF
the representatives today they will go
into the organization of the next House
with two distinct factions struggling for
advantage-regulars against conserva.
tives, insurgents against 'standpatters
If the democrats win. they also Will be
60 TO foo rI,ittH hn m.
Cling two apparently -irreconcilable fac
tons within their party ranks. In any
event, whether the victory Is with the
republicans Or the democrats, for the
first time in many years there will be
a question as to what will happen when
the clerk calls the sixty-second House
of Representatives to order.
The republican party has had distinct
majority in both Senate and House for
the last
Republicans Controlled eight Con
Last Eight Congresses. is the long
est period of time in the history Of the
republic in which both houses of Congress
have been controlled by the same political
party and by the same element OF that
political party. 1t is true that the demo-
cratic party had q majority in both Senate
and House of Representatives for eighteen
consecutive Congresses. from the Seventh
to the Twenty fourth, inclusive. But dur
ing the greater part Of that time there
was no other political party and the di-
vision of opinion in the country found
expression in ,factionalism rather than in
partyism. The control Of the party during
that period was twice changed, so that,
as matter of fact, in five OF those eight
cen Congresses the Jeffersonian democ-
racy controlled, while six were dominated
by the young republicans under the lead
ership Of Clay. three were completely
under the domination of the Jacksonian
democracy, and In four the Senate and the
House were at variance.
Since the beginning of the Twenty-f1fth
Congress party organizations in Congress
always have been clearly distinct. Since
that time the longest period of democratic
control of both Houses lasted for three
Congresses-the Thirty-Afth, Thirty-secoe1
and Thirty-third. During its entire career
the whig party was in control of both
Houses. but for two consecutive Con-
crosses, the Twenty-siXth and Twenty
seventh. The modern republican party
gained control Of both houses of Congress
beginning with the Thirty-seventh : Con-
gress, and it maintained its dominancy
for seven consecutive bienniums. the
record being broken when, in 1874 the
democrats captured the House of Repre-
sentatives for the Forty-fourth Congress.
From that time until the Ffftyfourth Con-
gress, which began its life on March 4,
1885, the two parties alternated in one
house or the other with every biennial
election.
The republican landslide which buried
the democrats in 1894 was confirmed two
years later
Some Previous in the great
Republican Majorities. S S.J ' cam
paign between Mckinley and Bryan. In
the Fifty-fourth Congress, elected in 1894,
the republicans had a majority in the
House of 142. This was reduced in 1896
to ~, and in 1900 it was still further re-
duced to %. During the sixteen years
OF republican control this small majority
I'm the Fifty-sixth Congress represents re-
publican low tide. In the Fifty-seventh
Congress the majority increased to 40; in
the Fifty-eighth it dropped to 81: in the
Fifty ninth, elected in 1904, it swelled to
ia, only to drop again in the Sixtieth to
s. In the present Congress, elected in
1908, the republicans had at the begin
ming a majority of AZ.
During the first fourteen years of this
long period of republican control there