Evening star., 1947-05-29

ate would not have revealed ma
jority for the passage of certain
amendments vital to the tax and
labor bills.
The fact Is that some Of the men
who were elected on the Republi-
can ticket are not voting with their
party at all Thus, some Of the men
who do not go along with their
party on all issues are Senators
Tobey of New Hampshire. Morse of
oregon, LANCER of North Dakota,
Cooper of Kentucky and OCCASION
ally Aiken of Vermont.
Independence of judgment Is al
ways meritorious, but it remains to
be seen whether political party re-
sponsihility can be effective If each
man decides for himself what the
party policies should be. The Demo-
Gratis are as much troubled with
this dilemma as are the Republi-
cans.
Difference in Situations.
The difference between the two
situations, however, is that the
Democrats from the South repre-
sent section and they are held to-
gether by common interest. There
Is no such common denominator Of
policy or program as between, for
example. Senator Morse of oregon
and Senator LANCER of North Da-
kota.
The Republicans may see some Of
their major legislation wrecked by
those who we're elected as Republi-
cans but who are voting with the
New Deal Democrats with strange
consistency of record.
The only remedy for the situa-
ton is for the Republican leader
ship to acknowledge to the country
that they do not have a party ma
jority and that, if the Nation
wishes to be sure that Republican
Party policies are carried out, then
substantial majority of Republi-
cans will have to be elected to the
Senate in 1948 to offset those who
have been deserting their party in
this session.
When the Reorganization Law
was passed to "streamline" con-
gressional activities and methods,
much was made of the fact that
each party would have a policy
committee. 1t was implied that each
party should be responsible as
group and that the bipartisan sys-
tenn could function best when there
was party responsibility instead of
blocs. each with their own concept
of party responsibility.
Nobody wants to see independence
Of judgment abandoned. But it is
one thing for certain members to
differ from their party now and
then. Tt is quite another to find
certain Republicans voting against
their party and taking the New Deal
point Of view on virtually every
piece of major legislation that has
been before the Senate thus far.
No Deliberate Insurgency.
The Republican Party has a sub
stantial majority In the House and
there the defections are not numer-
Gus and rarely represent the same
combination of votes This is be-
cause there Is no deliberate insur-
gency on the part of any more than
a small percentage. In the Senate
the percentage of insurgents on the
Republican side is large enough to
cause the leadership to be in danger
OF defeat on major questions. On
the tax-reduction bill which has
just passed the Senate, the Repub-
lican votes of Senators Cooper of
Kentucky, Langer of North Dakota
and Morse of Oregon were cast
against the measure. Fortunately
for the Republicans, eight conserva-
tive Democrats voted for the bill
Senators O'Conor of Maryland, Me-
Carran of Nevada, Hoey and Um-
stead OF North Carolina, Stewart
and MeKellar of Tennessee, ODan-
lei OF Texas and George of Georgia.
1t is to be noted that on the tax
bill Senators Tobey of New Hamp-
shire and Aiken of Vermont voted
with their Republican colleagues.
1t Is too early in the Republican
experience to know just what is the
basic reason for the defections that
occur on major pieces of legislation,
but 1t is not too early to observe that
unless the Republicans can increase
their majority in the next elections
the New Deal will come close to
winning back the balance of power
by coalition of New Deal Repub-
leans and Northern Democrats.
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