Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1950-11-05

That lineup is: 259 Democrats
1863 Republicans. l American-Labol
and 6 vacancies. 1t takes 218 to
control. If the 6 vacant seats re-
main in the parties that held them
last, the standing would be 262
Democrats to 172 Republicans
and the COP would have tc
make net gain of 46 seats in the
rest of the country.
If the race for control Of the
House is close the Democrats will
have a slight advantage growing
out of one unusual contest in New
York City. In their efforts to beat
Representative Marcantonio, the
lone American Labor member. the
Democrat, Republican and Liberal
Parties have Joined In putting 9
coalition candidate up against
him. They agreed on a veteran
Democrat. James q. Donovan.
Brewster Takes Issue
Should the Republicans gain
only about half of the seats they
need to win control they could
claim a swing in their direction
without mourning the headaches
of divided responsibility with a
Democratic administration. DEM
ocrats, of course, could reply that
the country was still Democratic
and point out that some gain fol-
the minority in an off-year cleo
ton is normal.
Stripped of the conflicting party
statements, such an outcome
would be essentially Democratic
victory. But once the victory
celebrations were over, the Demo-
cratic leaders of House and Sen
ate would find themselves facing
two hard years, trying to put
through with reduced majorities
the reforms they have not been
able to pass In this Congress
despite substantial Democratic
majorities.
One Republican leader. Senator
Brewster of Maine, has taken di'
rect issue with those who reason
that his party would be better of
by making gains short of contro
than If it could take over the rein.
in both houses. Mr. Brewster Il
chairman of the committee to helr
elect Republicans to the Senate
this year. He said recently hi
would welcome Republican con.
troll.
Senator Brewster insists Mr.
Humans success in 1948 was due
to the fact the Republicans die
not do enough to stress the
achievements of the 80th Congress
while the President was lambast-
ing it.
There may be some basis fol
the Senator's explanation of what
happened in 1948. But whenever
one party holds the White House
and the other controls Congress
the odds are likely to favor the
man in the White House in the
argument that is bound to develop
over their legislative differences.
To begin with, the administra-
ton program is usually built
around the views of the President
himself. He. therefore, has only
one record to defend, and he has
but to keep repeating his own
program and accusing the opposi-
ton leaders in Congress of thwart-
ing him.
The record of the Congress, on
the other hand, is made up of the
individual voting records of 531
men and women. They frequently
reveal a variety of viewpoints on
major bills on each side of the
political aisle. Some Republicans
will be found supporting certain
parts of the administration pro-
gram, just as conservative Demo-
Gratis occasionally line up with
the Republicans to defeat an ad-
ministration measure.
Slogan Works Better
This means that to defend their
record, after two years of divided
control, the Republican Congress
sional leaders would have to pre-
sent complicated analyses of in
dividual voting records to find out
just who killed this or that bill.
Complicated arguments and
long explanations never catch
hold in a Presidential campaign
like an adroit slogan. Thus, Mr..
Truman made hay in 1948 by
hammering away at the 80th
Congress as the worst. Two years
earlier, in 1916. when the Demo-
Gratis were in charge on Capitol
HILL the Republicans 'ar1sd the