Evening star., 1950-12-03

Not even on President T'rums
Gratis completely united. despite
the attempt of Senator Connally
of Texas, chairman of the Foreign
Relations Committee, to rally
them with fulminations against
the Republicans. Some of them
have not believed in spending vast
sums of money to rearm European
nations-and still do not believe
in it.
AS for other major Truman
policies-domestic in character
the Democrats will be as badly
split-and more so-than in the
present Congress. More than ever,
the Southern Democrats will hold
the balance of power in the new
Congress, which is tantamount to
saying that they hold the whip
hand over the so-called national
Democrats, dominated by the
Truman Fair Dealers and the old
Roosevelt New Dealers.
Take a look at what the recent
congressional elections has done
to the Truman Fair Dealers-in
cold, hard figures. The Demo-
cratic majority in the Senate has
been cut from IL to 2, and the
Democratic majority in the House
from 80 to SO. These cuts have
not been at the expense Of the
Southern wing of the Democratic
Party. They have been, on the
other hand, a sad blow to the Tru-
man Fair Dealers in the North
East and West.
Senate Lineup
In the Senate, where the Demo-
Gratis will have 49 members to Al
Republicans, the Southern bloc
counts upon a core of 81 Senators
to stand together against admin
istration policies which touch on
so-called civil rights-a polite
name for the racial issue. These
are the Senators from the II
States of the "solid South Ala
bama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia
Louisiana, Mississippi, North Car
olina. South Carolina. Tennessee
Texas and Virginia. This includes
all Senators from these States, ex-
cept Senator Kefauver Of Tennes-
see, who is suspected of Fair Dea
leanings. The new Senate will
have Representative George A
Smathers of Florida, in place o1
Senator Pepper and Willis Smith
in place of Senator Graham, ane
In both cases the Fair Dealer.
suffered losses. In addition, the
Southerners frequently can count
on colleagues from the border
States-Maryland, Kentucky, WeSt
Virginia and Oklahoma-in theil
opposition to the civil rights pro-
gram and also to the more left
wing legislative proposals. Clearly
the Senate situation has become
far worse for Mr.. Truman than II
has been in the last two years.
The II States of the "solic
South" will have total of 10;
Of the 235 Democratic members
OF the House. The Republicans
will have 1879 members. 1t is easy
to understand why the Fair Deal
ers may have a tremendously
difficult time in that body during
the next Congress.
The course of the Truman
Democratic national organization
since t948 has been to attempt tt
ride roughshod over those South
ern Democrats who declined to &c
along with the Fair Deal. Wher
the President said there were "toe
many Byrds" in Congress-with 6
play on the name Of the senior
Senator from Virginia-he put
into a few words the attitude o.
the administration, headed by
himself. Senator Byrd has beer
q drastic critic not only of tht
Presidents civil rights program
but also of his free-spending pro
grams and of such proposals a!
compulsory national health in.
surance and the Brannan farm
plan.
The elections of 1850 clipped
the comb of the Truman admins
tration. It Debated those Fail
Dealers who felt they held the
political world in their hands. The
elections may have convinced Mr.
Truman and his advisers that il
was time to hold out an olive
branch of some kind to the South
hrn Democrats-and there have
been rumors that some steps