Evening star., 1937-01-31
G.. @. p. POWER AT LOW.
BUT SOME HOPE EXISTS
Official Jobs Scarce to Build On, So
Party Extracts Comfort From i
~ Popular Vote.
BY MARX SULLIVAN.

URRENT print and current
4 vociferation at banquets and
meetings asks what is to be-
come of the Republican party.
The magazine Fortune puts the alter
natives tn esoteric terms Of q popular
American game. The question Is, For
tune says, whether the Republican
party should stand on . pair Of deuces
or draw to . red-card flush or turn in
its chips and 60 home" I translate
stand on q pair Of deuces" to mean
. course Of doing nothing, adopting .
manner Of confidence and trusting to
luck that the other player will make
q mistake. Draw to q red-card flush"
means, I assume, to become very pro-
gressive, almost radical red, and in
general to compete with the New Deal
In the New Deals own field. Turn in
its chips and 90 home" hardly needs
translation. A person does not need
to be . poker player to know what
that suggests.
Well, to adapt . phrase Of SAP
Smiths. let's look at the facts. The
facts are pretty somber. had re-
Gently q new realization Of how low
the Republicans have sunk In power
Il am speaking here Of oficial power,
not Of popular vote). was looking
at the new Congressional Directory,
which contains the committee assign
ments In the present Congress. Un-
der normal conditions, and practically
always In the past, committees Of the
House and Senate are almost equally
divided. Ordinarily the majority party
In power has Just enough members Of
. committee to make . majority.
That is, when the Republicans are the
majority party they will have, let US
say, II members Of . committee and
the Democrats 9, or vice versa.
The book before me Is the Congress
xional Directory Is it was printed on
the twentieth Of last month. Since
Congress convened some additions
have been made to the Republican
membership Of the committees. But
there will still be much white space
On the Republican side.
The Dismal Details.
Here. for example, Is the powerful
Committee on Finance. perhaps the
most important In the Senate. On
the Democratic side are 13 names; on
the Republican side is Just l name,
Senator Capper of Kansas. The Re-
publican insignificance Is made vivid
by another fact: Also on this COM
mittee Is Senator La Toilette, jr., Of
Wisconsin-so that the Republicans
have only the same representation as
the tiny one-State Progressive party
Of Wisconsin.
In the Committee on Banking and
Currency 1t is much the same: Eleven
Democratic names, two Republican
ones.
In the Committee on Foreign Rela-
tions, the Republicans have fairly
larger representation. There are l6
Democrats and S Republicans. But
Of the 5 Republicans 2 are: Senator
Borah, who remained silent and did
not support the Republican candidate
in either Of the last two presidential
elections, and Senator johnson OF
California, who In 1892 went all the
way over to the New Deal.
In the very important COMMITTEES
on judiciary (Which among other
functions holds hearings and makes
recommendations on appointments
to the Supreme Court) there are IS
Democrats and ; Republicans. The
3 Republicans, so-called, are Senator
Borah, whose Republicanism Is pretty
nominal: Senator Norris Of Nebraska,
who did not even run Is . Republican
in the recent election. and Senator
Austin Of Vermont.
Same Paucity In House.
In the House We find much the
same condition. One Of the most
important committees of the House
Is Ways and Means. On 1t IN this
session are l6 Democrats and Re-
publicans. On the very powerful
Committee on Rules are 10 Demo-
crats and Republicans.
All this composes . striking picture
Of the slightness Of the Republicans
participation In oficial power. The
picture Is borne out by figures In
other areas.
In the Senate are s6 members: OF