Evening star., 1922-03-19
BY WILL r. KENNEDY,
ME republican membership of
the House is worried as not
before in many years facing


TIME republican membership of
the House is worried as not
before in many years facing
an Observation-Disclosures and
collectively. They are worried by
very frank expressions of widespread
dissatisfaction on the general grounds
that Congress has not done any
thing. and more specifically because
taxes were not still further reduced
and because of the feeling over the
soldier bonus.
There are sol republicans in the
House, as against 132 democrats. SO
the campaign this year is largely to
see how many republicans can De
ousted. AS many of sitting republic
ans were accidents. elected more in
protest against the proceeding admin
istration than out of devotion to re-
publicanism. it is not to be expected
that the republican solidarity in an
unprecedented number Of states will
he maintained. AS a matter of fact.
the republican leaders appreciate that
for the orderly conduct Of legislation
as well as to hold the republican
forces more cohesively together IN
support of the administrations pro-
gram, it will be just as well to lose
some of the present unwieldly majority.
SAFE WORKING MAJORITIEs
WILL SATISFY LEADERS,.
The republican congressional COM
mittee, which has for more than a
month been working on a definite
campaign program. believes that it
will hold control of both the House
and Senate "by substantial working
ma joritics.'' and down deep that's all
the republican leaders really want.
BEING the party in power, the re-
publicanS enter the campaign on ule
defensive. because they are the party
subject to criticism for what has been
done or not doEc. The republican pro-
gram. however. does not propose to
await democratic attack. but to wage
a persistentiy aggressive campaign.
They propose to go before the people
on an issue Of fact. The republican
congressional committee in confer
cnce has decided that the resentment
throughout the country is not really
against the republican members OF
Congress, but against conditions tor
which the democrats were largely re-
sponsfble. which the, democrats have
done their utmost to prevent the re-
publicans from improving. and that
i the democrats. have cunningly taken
advantage of the situation to mislead
I,ai,. nd
ment.
The republican campaign plan is,
in brief, to get to the people and to
keep emphasizing a carefully pre-
pared statement of republican
achievement. This drive is being
carefully organized by Representa-
tive Simeon II. Fess of Ohio, chair
man of the congressional campaign
committee, whose concentration Is
going to be split up between the gen
cral campaign and his own campaign
for the Se1ate-which, if the truth
were told. he wishes he had never
gotten into.
WORRYING OUTA PLAN
FOR REACHING VOTERS.
Now this plan of reaching the
voters with the right sort of state
ment is being worked out in three
steps: Scouts are being sent into the
several states, not in the interests of
any particular candidates prior to the
primaries, but to find out what the
real situation is; the republican MEM
bers of each state delegation are
being called into conferences with
Chairman Fess and other members of
tho campaign committee and being
drilled in tho right sort of talk on
republican achievement, and schools
are going to be conducted in each
state, as far as possible. under the
personal direction of Chairman Fess
for the republican campaign workers.
The keynote speech of the repub-
lican congressional campaign was
sounded in the House the ether day
by Chairman F'ess, presenting the
record OF this administration for the
peoples decision" The campaign
vas planned in this way because the
committee appreciated that it cannot
be run on wind or make-believe,
and that they must have the real
facts to work from. That is why
scouts have been sent out into a
number Of states-Missouri, ~Okla-
homa. Massachusetts,. Ohio. Indiana,
Illinois. ETC.. the scouts having in
struetions to move about attracting
az little attention as possible. They
are looking for the weak spots, the
stronI places; what the committee must
know to operate efficiently; what the
people are resentful about, so. that it
may be explained. etc.
SCOUTS SEND ENCOURAGING
REPORTS FROM STATES.
The reports from these scouts are
surprisingly encouraging. Some of
,hem-regarding Missouri and Okla
homa, in particular-show that re-
publicans could never hope to hold all
they have and that it would be un-
reasonable to expect to do SO. only
for the fact that the democratic
party is in very bad shape in those
.tatse and needs considerable house
cleaning before it can be very ef-
fective.
While replies from a circular letter to
many prominent business leaders imme-
dately after the reorganization Of the
congressional committee were quite Bit
ter in tone-especially from eastern
states and financial csnters-the COM
,,,iffee n MT r,,r,ol, fllsfnrted. because