New Britain herald., 1926-11-03
THE NEW COMPLEXION
 OF CONGRESS

| ptliulull lO lHt DtillO'I ats. Iti'
 was the most important feature of
 the congressional elections, the vital feature that in one way or another will affect the entire coun-
 try within the next two years.
 There have been individual con-
 tests of interest such as in New
 York and Massachusetts; there
 have been prohibition referendums; there have been local contests that | stirred the pulse of voters, such as
 the Gabb contest in this county.
 But it was the overcoming
 question: Who is to gain control of
 Congress, which means control of | the government? Of the S4 sena- 1 tors from 33 states who were up l for election it appears that the Re l pubicans suffered the usual set 1 back of an off year. The election i OL NcpupliCdH ScHdtol Iioiii
 Maine on November 29, to fill i vacancy will have 10 be added to | Republican prospects.
 In the lower house conditions,
 as this was written, are not def- 1 nitely known. The Democrats here 
 | had q harder pull. being compelled
 to carry at least 51 of the 99 doubt
 ful seats to topple the Republican
 majority.
 1 The battle of ballots has been
 one of speckled interest, in some states, like in Connecticut, the fight being so one-sided that inter-
 est waned except in the case of
 certain local candidates. In others
 local issues settled it, in spite of ] the attempt of the administration to make the fight center around
 supporting Coolidge, economy and prosperity. Voters, as a rule, un- derstand local issues much more readily than national issues, unless the latter are of clean-cut and sincere character. Manufactured is-
 sues, such as the milk issues in New York and the Conowingo power project in Maryland, do not
 as a rule swing the voters greatly. The general citizenry may not be ideal thinkers upon abstruse polit- cal subjects, but 1t has an uncanny ability to see through mere politi- cal chicanery for election purposes What the result will be in Wash ington cannot be entirely probe-
 nautical. If the Democrats are suf- 1 tcient in the lead to organize the Senate committees, it will mean an important change to the nation. Perhaps an explanation is neces- sary. The party having majority in the Senate has the privilege of organizing the committees, which means that the chairmen of the important committees all of the
 committees, if desired will be Democratic senators. This would
 bring about d tremendous commit tee upheayal. Naturally, the chair
 men of some of the important con-
 mittces are men of tremendous in
 fuence in the policies of the nation. , It is they who have the power to call investigations, instigate policies and supervise the actions of com mittees generally; and much of the senatorial work hinges upon the actions of committees. A slothful, reactionary committee chairman can quench the fires of discontent
 by taking no action; virile, az grcssive committee chairman can ferret out all manner of causes and enforce action thereon. Senator Reed of Missouri is a shining ex- ample of such a chairman.
 President Coolidge has had ,f ha rI h h;
 grcss ever since he has been in the
 White House. Only in 1924, when sundry weak sisters were carried
 into office along with the land slide, has he had d semblance of
 cooperation there, and even then not in all matters. as the group of insurgents and Independents, with
 the one Farmer-Laborite. combined altogether too frequently for con-
 fort. If that was the case after a landslide one could not expect an Improvement us the result of by '''S'IVH' Hc S'tudlloH HOW IS one
 where the President can scarcely
 expect to "Contror' q situation of any importance. No Republican
 policies can be made to stick with such a Congress unless they meet
 with the approval of the large op- position. In the opinion of many observers this is quite a normal condition in American politics, and