Evening star., 1940-11-05

that sway votes %.4s% A
in large quanti-
ties before cleo
tion day. David Lawrence
What, it may be asked, will happen
to this group of workers who have
entered the fray? Some of them
have abandoned their regular pur-
suits to go to local headquarters to
work. Others-millionS of them
have rung doorbells and called on
their fellow citizens. The debate on
the street corners, in the homes OF
the big cities and particularly on the
farms and in the small towns has
covered a wide range of subjects.
Misrepresentation, whlSperlngS, dis
tortiOns as well as emotional vehe-
mence have all played their part.
Only the observers who have seen
mass movements in national cleo
tions over a period of many years
can make comparisons, but 1t is
conceded that this election has been
the most dramatic since 1916.
It would be a pity if the aroused
citizenry slipped back into apathetlc
indifference when the election has
passed. There is much to be COM
mended in an electorate that keeps
in touch with what is going on be-
tween election days and not just IN
the few weeks preceding. For while
democracy is a cumbersome thing at
times, it is made less so by the num-
Der of citizens who make themselves
vocal on public issues.
Stopped Supreme Court Plan.
Perhaps the best example of public
opinions operation between elections
came in 1887 when the bill to en-
large the Supreme Court was under
consideration. The letters and tele-
grams and personal visits which
marked the protest against change
made itself felt so effectively that
although Mr.. Roosevelt had a sub
stantial majority in both houses OF
Congress before the fight started
and had been elected only Jaw
months before by the biggest cleo
toral margin since the early days OF
the Republic, the Presidents plan
was rejected.
This correspondent has believed
that the House would have Re
publican majority next January.
congressional returns come in very
slowly and it may be a couple days
before the results are detlnltely
established. The existence of Re-
publican House and Democratic
Senate will not mean that the
parties will be at loggerheads. Ac-
tually there is a conservative group
of Democrats in the Senate, who, TO-
gether with the Republicans, can
make working majority.
If it turns out that President
of one party has been elected and
the opposite party has won one OF
the houses of Congress, public opin-
ion will have much to do with direct
ing the parties into some sort OF
support for the leadership Of the
Executive who has won the election.
If the final statistics show mar
row margin. this will not happen,
because each party will stick to lts
guns. So, the extent of the popular
vote or majority for the winning
candidate will have an important
bearing on what Congress does.
Yields Real Power.
The power of the presidency is,
Of course, little realized. Repeal of
laws now on the statute books can
not be accomplished by mere ma
jority of Congress unless the Presi-
dent wants repeal, too. 1t takes a
two-thirds vote of both houses to
get a bill repealed over the protest
of a President. This means that
the President is as powerful as two
thirds of both houses, minus just
one vote in either the House or the
Senate.
But in recent years the power of
the purse has come to be recognized
as all important. Appropriation bills
have to be passed by each Congress.
Hence a refusal to appropriate for
q given function of government is
equivalent to repeal of that func-
ton. In any situation where repeal
bills cannot be gotten through be-
cause of Presidents opposition, the
power to use the purse strings-long
recognized as paramount in the his
tory of parliamentary government
throughout the world-comes into
play.
Accent on Capitol Hill.
Irrespective of the outcome, it
seems assured that congressional
government will be far more i'm
portant than it has been for the last
decade. This will be the result of
q strengthening of the minority
party in the Senate and the moving
up of the Republicans to position
of parity with their opponents in
the House. Even if the Republicans
fail by small margin to win the