Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1950-11-05
Some Claim G. O. P.
Would Be Better
Off as Minority
By J. A. O'Ieoy

The outcome Of Tuesdays bal
loting for control of Congress will
have an important bearing on the
1852 presidential campaign.
Paradoxical as it may sound.
there is one school of thought
among Washington observers
which holds that winning control
of the House and Senate this year
would not be the best thing that
could happen to the Republicans.
Those who hold this theory be-
lieve the COP would fare better
in the long run if. as some fore
casters are predicting, the minor
ity party comes out of this cleo
ton with net gains in the House
and Senate short of numerical
control.
Lesson in 1913
OF course, Republican campaign
managers could not be expected to
embrace this theory. The natural
desire of all party leaders is to
win as complete a victory as they
can in any election. In these
CLOSING hours of the 1850 battle,
spokesman for both sides are out
to win as many seats as they can.
Good arguments can be ad-
vanced for and against the theory
that the Republicans would be
worse off in 1852 if they share in
control of a divided government
with President Truman for the
next two years, than if the Demo-
lcrats keep the reins at both ends
Iof Pennsylvania avenue until the
end of Mr.. Trumans term.
The most potent argument for
the theory is the fresh recollec-
ton Of what Mr.. Truman did to
the Republican 80th Congress by
making it the whipping boy in
his two-fisted, free swinging cam
paign to stay in the White House
in 1913.
Those who subscribe to this un-
orthodox theory now contend
that Mr.. Truman could stage a
repeat performance in 1852, if
for the next two years he had a
Republican Congress on his hands.
There seems no doubt Mr.. Tru-
man will be his party's entry in
the 1852 presidential race, and it
Is safe to assume that through
out the next two years he will
be fighting to get from the SID
Congress the basic planks of bis
Fair Deal program which thus
far he has failed to get from the
Democratic 81st Congress. elected
with him in 1913.
Test of Party Leadership
This 81st Congress vii, be back
in session for about six weeks be-
tween now and Christmas, hut no
one expects 1t to act in that
short time on such important
features of the Truman program
as:
Repeal of the Taft-Hartley la
Dor law.
Federal aid to education and
the civil rights bills.
Indeed, there is considerable
doubt whether this short session
of the old Congress will complete
action on the main issues before
it-enactment of an excess profits
tax, extension Of rent control and
Statehood for Hawaii and Alaska.
This means all or most of these
controversial issues probably will
be dumped into the lap of the new
Congress in January, and. If it is
Republican controlled. Mr.. Tru-
man will be in position to blame
it for any part of his program
which fails to go through.
If. on the other hand, the DEM
ocrats keep control of Congress.
the President would have to stand
;or fall in 1852 on his ability to get
his program through in four sue
cessive years of complete Demo-
cratic leadership. Whether he
would be more successful in the
next two years than in the past
two remains to be seen, and
probably will depend in some de-
gree on the voting trends revealed
at the polls Tuesday.
On the eve of the balloting, the
Republicans need net gains of 40
seats in the House and 7 in the
Senate to take control.
The 40 figure for the House is
based on the lineup as it actually
exists today, with 6 seats vacant.