Evening star., 1950-10-22
THE SUNDAY STAR, Washington, D. c.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER n. 1850
Federal Vote Potent
Government Employees Can Tip Scales in
Close Contests and Thus Win Elections
By RondoIph Leiqh

The 1948 election was the first
which was close enough to give
the balance of power to the Fed
eral employe bloc since it has be-
come strong enough to count.
Will 1850, with a substantially
heavier civilian employe list, be
close enough to again allow the
officeholders to tip the scales?
1t is true in sense that there
is no unshakable proof that Fed
eral employees exercised that bal
ance of power even if they held
it. This much. however, is GER
tain: In 1948 their total number
families excluded) in the six
almost tied, decisive States-Cal-
ifornia, Illinois, Ohio. Utah, Wyo-
ming and Nevada-Was six times
as great as the total Democratic
margin of victory in those States.
Furthermore, in each of those
States the counties which carried
the State were those in which the
concentration of Federal employees
was heaviest.
There is obviously nothing
wrong in Federal employe voting
as he pleases. 1t is natural to
expect that he will vote for the
regime which seems likely to pro-
tect his job. 1t is at the same
time highly probable that he will
SO sincerely believe in the value
of the work he is doing that he
will think that in voting as he
does he will be serving the public
interest. That is obviously not
the issue here under discussion.
Simply as matter of civicS, we
are confronted with a probably
entirely fortuituous concentration
Of Federal employees in States in
which. but for those employees, the
opposition party apparently would
have carried the State and with
1t the Nation.
II we 60 one step further in
looking to 1948 as guide for
1850 we find another striking
coincidence. There were five
States which. though less deli
cately balanced than the pivotal
six, were nevertheless so close
that the combined total of all
Federal employees, civilian and
military, was substantially heav-
Ter in each case than the Demo-
cratic margin of victory. They
were Arizona, Colorado, Utah, |
Virginia and Washington.
Guide for Future
This year is the first one in
which 1t is possible to discuss
closely the influence of the Fed
eral civilian-and that term is
here used to designate a person
on the civil service list-because
this will be the first election in
which we will know in advance
how civilian employees are dis
trlbuted by States. It was only
a few months ago that the Civil
Service Commission began pub
fishing breakdown of its en-
ployes by States. Under this new
system-Which in effect invites all
students of Government to ana
lyze the bearing of these en-
ployes on the formation of gov
ernmental policies-employes are
also given in terms of the five
major branches. These are Army
Navy, Air Force, Veterans Admin
tstration and post offices. Since
these five include 80 per cent of
all civilian employees under Civil
Service. and since their major
centers can be easily pinpointed,
1t is now for the first time pos
sible to locate Federal employees
by counties. And since the ratio
of military to civilian employees
under the status of 1o48 was 1.8
to l, it is also possible, using the
civil service list, to determine
the number of military person.
mel in given locality. OF course,
that applies for the military only
to non-war times, as in 1e48. ut
is probable that publication of
the civil service list by States will
not last long under present semi
war conditions, because it is too
clear a betrayal of military con-