The Republican journal., 1914-11-12
The South Out of the Saddle.
Cat and Dog Time Probable Between the
National House and the White House.
Especial to the Boston Transcript


WASHINGTON. Nov. 4. The South has
lost control in the National House of
Representatives. This is one of the
greatest results of Tuesdays elections.
A conservative estimate of the Republi-
can Congressional committee places the
antI-Democratic membership of the next
House at 212 Republicans without Mon
tana, three Progressives, including one
from Louisiana, and one Socialist. A
majority of the House is 218. The Tam
many Democrats of New York will send
to the sixty-third Congress about seven
men. Thus John J. Fitzgerald, the Tam
many chairman of the Committee on
Appropriations, may be able of his own
strength to tell the Southern brethren
where they get off. Or, to put it differ
emily, very small group of Northern
Democrats can combine with the Repub-
licans upon measures where sectional
action is attempted and defeat any pro-
gramme the Southern members may pro-
pose. The Republicans have lost only
two seats in the House, according to the
present information. one in Utah and one
in Oklahoma. The Progressive party ap-
pears eliminated as political factor,
certainly as balance of power in Ma
tional legislation. Even should the Dem
ocratic claim of a ma ority of twenty-five
in the House be made good, this reason
soning will stand.
PASSING OF THE PROGRESSIVES.
Scanning the country as whole one
may draw many conclusions from the re-
suits, but all political observers admit
that the overshadowing feature of the
general outcome is the disappearance of
the Progressive party. In New York
State, VIII, re 1t was born, this party run
a poor fourth. Almost everywhere else
it occupied the unimportant third place.
In the Empire State it dropped from
800. 900 two years ago to bare 60, 600
yesterday. 1t even Jagged behind the
vote cast for William Sulzer, the dis
credited Democrat, who was ousted from
the governorship of New York eighteen
months ago. Nowhere in the country,
according to the view very generally held
today, did the third party make show
ing which will warrant its leaders in try
ing to hold it toge Their for use in the 1916
campaign. The latest information from
California indicates that Hiram w. John
son, the Progressive candidate for Gov
ernor, has been able to make better
showing than any other man that par
IlClpdJcu Ill LkO dHlAdClOA VI CuC ehAN
party. But it is pointed out johnson
made his race as an independent in poll
tics rather than a Progressive, though
he was the nominee of the Progressive
party. The politicians all foresaw today
that the 1916 Presidential campaign will
be between the two old parties, the Re-
publicans and the Democrats. 1t is reason
able to assume that those men who still
cling to the Progressive party in yester-
days election will now see the futility of
attempting to keep the party alive, and
will be hunting for new party homes.
TROUBLE AHEAD IN WASHINGTON.
As these dispatches indicated before
election, the narrow Democratic majority
in the House promises a cat-and-dog time
between the next House of Representa-
! tives and the White House. 1t will COM
pei modification of the Wilson policies
if they are not designed along improved
lines in the great industrial States. The
first two years of the Wilson Administra-
ton have been devoted to an attempt at
, higher craftsmanship. The next two
years are destined to be political, with
| all the vexations that go with chaotic
conditions in Congress. The real power
in legislation will rest more than ever
with the Senate leaders, for even with
the enormous Democratic majority, the
House has proved itself incapable OF
acting lntelligently and it is this inca
pacity which the people yesterday re-
buked at the oils.