Evening star., 1937-01-31

1t Is necessary TO include Senator
Borah, Senator Frazier Of North Da.
kota. who did not support Governor
.Landon. but gave his support to the
third party candidate. Mr.. Lemke:
Senator johnson Of California and at
least two others whose Republicanism
Is pretty nominal.
In the House the total membership
Is 435. OF this total 333 are Demo-
Gratis; only sS are Republicans. (The
remainder is made UP Of eight Progress
sives, mainly from Wisconsin; five
Farmer-Labor from Minnesota and one
Vacancy
State Showing Slim.
Turn to Governors Of States. The
Republicans have only out Of 48.
(The States having Republican Gov.
ernors are California, Maine, Mary.
land, New Hampshire, New Jersey and
Vermont.)
With Mayors 1t Is much the same.
Out Of 277 cities listed In the World
Almanac only 81 have Republican
Mayors. The fewness Of Republicans
among Mayors and Governors carried
. special weakness, for 1t means that
In few cities or States do the Re.
publicans have ONCE holding organi.
cations, which are the backbone Of
machines for getting out the vote.
The weakness Of the Republicans,
as respects holding ONCE. can be re.
duced to percentages:
In the Senate the Republicans have
II per cent. In the House 20 per cent.
Among Governors, IL per cent. Among
Mayors, 20 per cent.
Old Records Not Looked Up.
This weakness Of Republicans In
official positions is conspicuous and,
from the point Of view Of the party
undoubtedly ominous. think, though
I'm not sure. that never before has
major party had so small a share
Of the places Of ofdcial power. Ger.
tainly not since the Civil War. With.
out looking up the records think the
Democrats may have been as weak in
Congress during the Civil War-but
that was because q large part Of
what was normally Democratic terri
tory, the South, vas in secession and
hence had no representation In Con.
gress.
have not investigated the strength
OF the Whig party, just before 1t ex.
pired and gave way to the new Re.
publican party, in the 1850s. Nor
have I looked up the comparative
strength Of the Federalist party Just
before 1t expired, in the early isoos.
G. o. p. Has Some Voters, Though.
It Is true the Republicans have only
IL per cent Of the Senate and AZ per
cent OF the House and are similarly
weak among Governors and Mayors.
Yet there are circumstances in which
percentages and statistics may mis-
lead. and this is one Of the times.
The real measure Of q partyS
strength Is its proportion of the
voters. Here the Republican showing
Is decidedly not one to suggest early
death. The total vote Of Democrats
and Republicans for President last
November Was divided a. follows:
Democrats, 27,751,612. /
Republicans, l6.681,9l3.
Here are over l6,5oo, 900 Republican
voters, or at least voters who don't
like the New Deal. And l6,500, 900 -
. formidable party.
Reduced to percentages the Demo.
Gratis had 81 per cent of the total vote
for all candidates, the Republicans
81 per cent. This 81 per cent Is .
perfectly respectable figure for the
minority party at any time. This Re.
publican percentage last November
was greater than the Democratic pers
centage In 1924 and 1920.
Obtaining Hope by Arithmetic. :
Expressed another way, the Repub.
lican vote last November had been
exceeded only twice before by the vots
Of any party. Republican or Demo-
cratic. It was exceeded only when
the Democrats got more In 1892 and
when the Republicans themselves got
more in 1928.
There are several qualifications
which, applied to the figures, suggest
that the Republican strength among
the voters Is even greater than It
seems. I can suggest them without
going too deeply into figures.
From the total vote In the country
as q whole subtract the votes Of both
parties In the solid South. This would
materially diminish the total Demo.
cratic vote and diminish the Repub.
lican vote much less seriously. IN the
South the parties do not divide nor
mally. The South Is not o normal
battle ground. With the South sub.
tracted the remainder Of the country
Is the truly representative territory, the
territory Of typical debate and battle.
In this territory the showing Of tho
Republicans was materially stronger
than In the country as . whole.
There is yet another qualification.
The Republican vote last November
that is. the vote for Gov. Landon-
was 1851 ,9l3. But Gov. Landon,
1t Is tenable to say, did not get the
full Republican vote. He did not get as
much as the aggregate vote for Re.
publican candidates for Governor.
nor for Republican candidates for
Congress
House Vote True Test.
The aggregate figures for Congress
are not available And since not all
States voted for Governor, this aggre.
gate figure Is not complete. But there
is light in the fact that In New York
State the Republican candidate for
Governor got some 270.o00 votes more
than Mr.. Landon as the Republican
candidate for President. In State
after State, in practically all the
States in which elections for Gov.
ernor were held. the Republican
candidate for Governor ran ahead
Of Mr.. Landon by percentages sini.
lar to, in several cases greater than.
] In New York. II Is quite possible
that in the whole country the total
vote for Republican candidates for
offices other than President was as
much as o million and . third more
than Gov. LAndon's national total.
In short, that the total Republican