Evening star., 1950-12-03

and concessions - have already
been advanced. On the surface,
however, President Truman has
changed not at all-but will drive
ahead with his civil rights pro-
gram in the new Congress-and
also with such major issues as
the Brannan plan, the health in
surance program and repeal of
the Taft-Hartley Act. Apparently
reliance upon the votes of organ
lied labor and the Negroes in the
Northern and Western States for
victory at the polls in 1852 is still
the plan of the Trumanites.
The Congressional Quarterly,
which keeps close track of the
voting records of all members of
Congress. has estimated that when
the 82d Congress convenes the
Truman administration will lose
one-fourth of the Democrats Gin
Congress) who have supported the
Democratic majority from 80 to
100 per cent of the time. It's
survey shows that Z of the 19
Democratic Senators with party
unity percentages ranging from 80
to 100 per cent will not return
to the 82d Congress because of
election defeats and retirements.
Twenty of the 81 House Demo-
Gratis who supported their party's
majority from 80 to 100 per cent
of the time on the party-line roll
calls are retiring at the close of
the present lame-duck session.
Three of the II Democratic Sena-
tors. and II of the 70 House Dem
ocrats with party-unity percent
ages ranging from 80 to 90 per
cent will also not be in the new
Congress.
Twenty-four of the 81 Demo-
Gratis retiring were Freshmen"
with high party-unity percentages.
They had come to Congress with
the Truman victory in 1948. Since
new congressman have a ten
dency to go along with their party
leaders, this kind of loss for the
Democrats looks like a material
gain for the Republicans when
votes are taken on party issues.
The recent defeats of the Fair
Dealers at the polls have not been
calculated to convince the South
ern Democrats that the Truman
ties are invincible. On the con-
trary, some of the Southern Dem
ocrats look on the election results
with equanimity. They believe
that the time is not far off when
the Southern Democrats will
again be listened to with consid-
cradle interest by the national
party.
Leadership Contested
The Southern Democrats intend,
it seems, to throw their weight
around in the selection of a new
majority leader of the Senate.
The election of a Southern Sen
ator as majority leader would,
indeed, be a body blow for the
Truman administration and its
declared purpose to put through
its civil rights program, including
anti-lynch, anti-poll tax and FEPC
legislation. Gone would be any
lingering hope of getting the
program adopted. and gone might
be lot of Negro votes on which
the Democratic administrations
has counted for number of elec-
tions.
A preview Of the manner in
which the Southern Democrats
may dominate the situation in
the new Congress, was given dur
ing the last week when the admin
istration forces sought to get ac-
ton on the Alaska statehood bill.
President Truman had strongly
urged the passage of statehood
bills for both Alaska and Hawaii,
and the leadership undertook to
bring up the first. Immediately
the Southern Democrats unlim-
bered. They are opposed to state
hood for Alaska and Hawaii, and
the reason behind the reasons they
give is that they do not want four
additional Senators all of whom
might be expected to support the
civil rights program. They began
talking and kept it up. and ap-
parently they intend to keep it
up until the statehood bills are
killed-so far as the present Con-
press La concerned.