The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-11-12
REAL MAJORITY IN
 HOUSE NOT GIVEN BY FIGURES SAYS BOWIE
PrOgressives Vote With the Democrats Greater Part of Time-Working Ma
 jority About Fifty

Sydney J. Bowie, formerly membe,
 of the House of Representatives of tn,
 United States. issued a statement yes.
 terday In which he pointed out thal
 the announced majority of sl which tn, democrats have in the House does nol indicate their real strength on practically all questions MT. Bowies analysis oi
 the result of the election follows:
 "rhe impression has gone abroad thal the democrats suffered a great defeai in the recent congressional election. The democratic majority has been steadl, increasing. According to the unofficial estimate of the clerk of the House. pub
 lished Wednesday morning, the demo
 erats have 23S. the republicans 1es the progressives z, the independents and SO cialists 1 each This gives q democratic
 majority of 3l in the House over all But that does not measure the req
 majority. On probably 70 per cent oi the questions which arise the progress sives will In the future, as they have in tho past, vote with the democrats. Tho | independent, MT Kent of California, has voted with the democrats on almost al
 legislation in the present Congress anc
 doubtless will do so in the future. In
 stead of counting the progressives anc
 independents as anti-democrats, they vii be found supporting the democratic pol.
 icy in almost every instance, certainly | far more frequently than they will be
 found supporting the republican, This will give the democrats working ma
 iority of approximately 50 in the House This majority is as large and half again
 as the republicans have usually had ir I Congress since 1898. In fact, they could | almost never count on a majority of I 5o or anything approximating it, in the
 last IA years of their power. A majority of 3l over all is more than the average
 majority that the republicans had in the
 last 12 years in which they had control l of the House.
 "In addition to this. the democrats | elected every one of their senators and 1 gained three from the republicans, giv-
 ing the democrats a working majority of
 16 over all in the Senate, and if MT. Poin-
 dexter of Washington is included with
 them they will have a majority of IS in
 the Senate Senator Poindexter was born 1 in Mississippi and although ranked as
 progressive has almost invariably sup
 ported democratic policies.
 When 1t is considered that Congress l was in session until within Il few days of the election and that the democratic 1 representatives had no opportunity to
 mako an adequate canvass while their opponents were in the field for months, | the democratic majority becomes really
 remarkable. Few people realize at what
 & tremendous disadvantage the democrats | were in the congressional race. due to l the fact that Congress was in session until within a few days of the election while their opponents had been actively l canvassing their districts for months Moreover. another fact which seems l to have escaped notice is that in the three 1 states where the democrats suffered most New York. Ohio and Illinois--the result was mainly due to the splits in the party. 1 Outside of those states the republican | gains were comparatively small. In any l fair analysis of the election returns 1t must be conceded that the democrats.
 under the circumstances. scored brill l liant victory"