Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-07-23
MAJOR PARTIES PREPARE
FOR CAMPAIGN in 1884
Republicans Hope to Rebuild Congress
Strength for Presidential Race in
l936-Gain in House Probable.
BY JOHN SNURE.
. 9TH Democrats and Republic
cans are BEGINNING to look

~ 9TH Democrats and Republic
l. cans are beginning to look
ahead to the congressional cam
IL paign which will be fought out
next year. Although the actual
struggle will not take on great activity
until next Winter. the preliminary
maneuvering has begun. The cam
paign is likely to be intense, regardless
of the fact that throughout the extra
session there was a strong disposition
on the part of many Republicans to
hold aloof from politics and give the
Roosevelt administration and a Demo-
cratic Congress chance to develop the
Presidents program.
The campaign will have two general
purposes so far as the Republicans are
concerned: First. to regain as much
strength as possible in the Senate and
House; second, to rebuild their lines
in preparation for the 1886 campaign
Among the Democrats. every effort will
be made to add to their strength in the
Senate and to hold large majority in
the House, as well as to keep their
forces in the best possible form for the
1886 campaign.
Impossible to Lose Control.
Their major strategy will be to con-
vince the country that the Democratic
administration and the Democratic ma
Jority in the two houses of Congress
have made good and that the new deal
is worthy of further trial
1t would be a great handicap to
President Roosevelt and his new policies
to have Congress pass out of Demo-
cratic control in the coming years elec-
tons. As things stand now, it is I'M
likely he will suffer from such a handi-
cap. 1t will be political impossibility
Tor the Republicans to regain control of
the Senate in 1884. The best they can
hope Is to reduce the present Demo-
cratic majority, thus making 1t less diff
ficult to block the legislation proposed
by the brain trust" as well as to make
a majority somewhere near feasible in
the 1896 elections.
Now Hold 60 to IS Lead.
The Democratic leaders, however, do
not propose to allow the Republicans
to make any Senate gains next year II
they can help it. At present, the Demo-
cratic strength in the upper house is
60, while the Republicans have IS and
the Farmer Labor party /.
The highest number the Republicans
have ever had in the Senate Is 81, on
two occasions. The Democratic leaders
desire in the coming elections to advance
the total of their party to 81 and, II
possible, eclipse the highest Republican
figure. This, of course, is not merely a
matter of ambition to Guido past Re-
publican strength. Democratic leaders
are well aware that If they add to their
present strength in the Senate In 1894
or maintain substantially their present
strength, it will be impossible to dis
lodge them from control of that body
before 1899. Even a great anti-Demo-
cratic sweep on the presidency In 1886
could not put the Republicans into
control Of the Senate If they should
fail to make large gains in the coming
campaign.
The House situation is materially Diff
ferent. Unless the new Democratic
regime is much stronger than political
experts believe it likely to be, there
viii be a heavy swing of the pendulum
back in the direction of Republican
control of the House The prevailing
kclief here is that the Democrats will
lose part Of their enormous and I'M
Nieldly majority, but that they will still
letain a substantial lead In the House.
Republican Gains Predicted.
Some of the Republican leaders say
they have real chance of recapturing
the House, but there is no practical
possibility of this unless the country
becomes convinced as the next cam
paign gets fully under way that the
administrations legislative program is
failure or is headed irrevocably in
that direction
In almost any event, however, the
Democratic majority in the House will
be substantially reduced. When it is
recalled that the Republican strength
in the House from the States west of
the Mississippi was almost wiped out
last year. to say nothing of large losses
east of the Mississippi, and that many
cld-time Republicans in the House were
defeated, it is natural to expect the
Republicans to retake some Of their lost
ground.
A good many of the new Democratic
members of the House who were elected
as political accidents" will in all prob
ability prove to be one-termers, and it
is assumed that considerable number
of the veteran Republicans who went
down last year will come back.
Republican rehabilitation and reor-
ganization, which were much talked
about last Winter and have been under
consideration since the extra session
VI.
Nevertheless, from the regional confer
ences which have been held in recent
weeks by National Chairman Everett
Sanders, Republican chiefs see much
that is encouraging. They profess to
believe the Republican elements are
gradually pulling themselves together,
while in many States the forces Of fac
tlcnalism are at work among the
Democrats
Watson Voices Optimism.
Thus, former Senator James E. Wat
son CT Indiana, who was beaten for re-
election last year, on a recent visit to
Washington said that, while President
Roosevelt was strong in Indiana, the
Democratic leadership in the State had
been greatly weakened. and Repub-
lican hopes for carrying the State next
year were steadily rising.
Admittedly, however, the only posi-
bility of large Republican gains next
year, beyond these cases in which
normal Republican districts or States
swing back, Is to be found in some
Republican leaders do not dispute this.
They are waiting to see how the nation
fares under agricultural adjustment
and industrial control and all of that
extraordinary assortment of legislation
enacted in the recent session Of Con-
gress. They also observe the political
effect of the slashes in pensions and
compensation of veterans and reduc-
lions in pay of Federal employees,
along with the discharge CT great num-
bers of these employees: how the coun-
try will take the new tax burdens, and
SO on.
The Republicans are asking how the
consumer Is going to bear with higher
prices unless wages are both increased
and so widely distributed as greatly to
lessen unemployment and largely to
expand buying power. They are Won
dering how the farmers will take to
agricultural adjustment, and are
keenly anxious to know whether con-
troll of industry from Washington is
not going to have numerous hostile
reactions which will force the Demo-