The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-10-31

stake and the three House seq With Maine's poll out of the way, the electorate on Nov. 3, must choose 31 senators for full six year term, 4 for short terms and, 432 members of the House of Representatives. There are 32 Gov ernors and thousands of other State and local officials to be elected.
 Under the first Tuesday after the first Monday" rule, this Nov. 3 election is within one day of being as early as it constitutionally may be.
 The campaign has been obscured by war. Registration and primary voting have been light. Party chests are almost empty. There has not been for years an American political contest with less zip in 1t or less public interest. The air and the newspapers and hot stove corner of the village store have been filled with theories, but none knows how the electorate will react to the war accompanied by spectacular reverses as well as some success and to the gaoline- sugar-rubber and related disloca- tions of living.
 None knows either how the elect crate will take to the facts that Congress was bit precipitant with its own pension plans and got Grawn in on some bureaucratic bungling which caused a lot of the statesmen to turn up with TX" card priveleges for the purchase Of gasoline.
 Democrats to Hold Senate
 Other factors are the new tax bill in which many millions of vot- CTS are going to learn about the Bureau of Internal Revenue for the first time, and the necessity for drafting the youngsters of IS and 19. The prospect is not one to soft en a statesmen's pillow.
 But there is no possibility of the Republicans gaining control of the Senate this year. That is because only one- third of its 96 members, plus short terms, come up for re- election at one time. With the solid South still solid, there are not enough Senate contests actually in question to enable Republicans to take over the Senate. The Senate now is composed of 65 Democrats, 29 Republicans, one Independent and one Progressive.
 There is a chance, of course, that the Republican party might regain control of the House lost to the Democrats in 1e30. To do so they would have to gain 52 seats. That is a large order. House alignment now is 264 Democrats, 166 Repub- ncans, three Progressives, one American Labor and one Farmer Labor.
 If the Republicans do come uI with 52 more House seats, they will turn Rep. Sam Rayburn, D., Tex. out of the Speakership. and put Rep. Joseph w. Martin, Jr. R. Mass, in his place.
 Democrats would be supplantec by Republicans in Comm te Chairmanships. One of the cam paign issues Democrats have sough to raise in that connection is the fact that Rep. Hamilton Fish, R. N. Y, notable pre-war isolation ist, would become Chairman of thC House Foreign Affairs Committed if Republicans returned to power Fish is senior Republican on For. eign Affairs and on the powerful Rules Committee.
 Republicans are whispering tha' Ham" would be induced to accep the Rules Craftsmanship if thu House changed complexion thii year.
 Democrats Worried
 Although Republicans general. are just short of claiming that the! will win a House majority or election day. there are unmistak able evidence of anxiety amoni the Democratic high command That is usual on both sides in an. campaign year. But the Democrat are counting the votes more care fully in this prediction periot than at any time since the frs big New Deal sweep of 1892.
 A mid . October survey tha showed only l91 Democratic seat as safe as politicians fighting fo their lives would desire them to bG kept the Democratic leaders wor ried and fretful up to election eve.
 Whatever the final House tall may show, political Washington and those local and regional states men who Re trained to recogniz and ride with a trend when, the see one, are counting this campaig