Evening star., 1946-11-03

NSNEN9EN ty@o.
preventing supplies of all kinds
from reaching the consumer mar
ket from shirts to automobiles and
houses.
i 3. The bungling of the Truman
administration on domestic and
economic issues, as well as foreign.
4. Shortages of foodstuffs, espe-
cially meat.
S. Communist support for Demo-
cratic candidates-made certain by
the Moscow radio itself, which de-
clared for the Democrats generally
in this election and listed specifi-
cally certain candidates 1t desired
to see elected to Congress.
Democrats Won't Concede.
The Democratic high command
makes no concession of a wave Of
opposition on the part of the voters.
On the contrary, it insists the party
will continue to control both Houses
of Congress by undiminished ma
jorities. Privately, however, lead
ing Democrats will admit that party
strength in the Senate will be cur
tailed, and that there may be a
slight change in the Democratic
majority in the House.
Administration leaders, as well as
the Democratic candidates for Of
flee, warn the voters against Re-
publican reaction, insist that a Re-
publican victory would mean the
loss of social gains made under the
Roosevelt administration, and pic
ture another depression even more
severe than that Of 1929 and ensu-
ing years If the COP comes into
control of the Government.
They predict chaos in. Govern
ment for the next two years If Re-
publicans dominate Congress while
the White House remains in Demo-
cratic hands. They charge that
higher prices of commodities today
are due entirely to the Republican
fight which was made against con-
tinuance Of OPA.
COP Line of Attack.
Day after day, however, Republi-
can speakers and publications have
attacked President Truman and his
administration, first on the count
that the Democrats predicted large
unemployment at the end of the
war hostilities-and were wrong;
second on the count that the Presi-
dent and Henry Wallace told the
workers that wages could be in
creased without increasing prices
and were wrong; third, that OPA
would hold down prices-and it
didn't; fourth, on the count that
President Truman agreed to let for
mer Secretary of Commerce Henry
A. Wallace speak for softer policy
toward Soviet Russia, and then
threw him out of the cabinet for
making the speech.
The most effective and most cas-
lily understood issues against the
Democrats were the meat shortage
on the domestic front, and the Wal
lace row on the foreign
policy issue.
President Truman has succeeded |
in pleasing neither the conserva-
tives in his party nor the radicals.
In a final desperate effort to save
votes among the leftistS, Mr.. Wal
lace was sent out on a stumping |
tour. Mr.. Wallace's dismissal from
Office had a bad reaction In CIO-
PAC circles, however-and the PAC
is one Of the main reliances of the
Democratic command in this elec-
ton. But inquiry on the Pacific
Coast, in the Midwest and ON the
Atlantic Coast leads to the belief
that the CIO politically is far less
effective today than it was In 1914 :.
Registration is High.
Both Democrats and Republicans
figure they will gain from the high
registration in nearly all the
States. Democrats contend that If
the people come out to vote in
large numbers, they will win. The
Republicans interpret the increased
registration as meaning a big pro-
test vote. Certainly one OF the
main fears OF the Democrats has
been that the mass Of voters will
not care sufficiently to 60 to the
polls.
With the late President Franklin
D. Roosevelt, out of the picture, the
Democrats have had no real rally
ing point in this campaign. Mr..
Truman, far from being regarded as
an asset by the Democratic candi-
dates, is really the forgotten man
of this campaign. Early in the con-
test Robert E. Hannegan, Demo-
cratic National Committee Chair
man and the White House itself
encouraged the idea that President
Truman would go stumping for
Democratic congressional candi-
dates. On the contrary, they have
preferred he stay out of their
States.
In the fight for House control,
the Democrats start with an ace
in the hole-122 seats in TIE Solid
South. No Republican Is expected
to win there. However, in some of
the so-called Border States, includ-
ing Kentucky, West Virginia, Mary
land and Missouri, the Republicans
have good chances of taking House
seats away from the opposition.
Their chances of such success lie
also in States of the North, East,
Midwest and Far West.
Possible COP Gains.
Here is a table of possible Repub-
lican House gains: California, to
4; Connecticut, 2 to 4; Delaware, /;
Illinois, to 6; Indiana, /; Kentucky,