Evening star., 1962-04-20

government call DC pT6ScTfc(
only by confronting this strons
President with a strong op'
position party in Congress.
The Republican leaders o.
the House and Senate sounded
this note last night in a state.
ment saying that Mr.. Kennedy
used "police-state methods" tC
reverse the steel price increase
Their theme will be hearC
again in many variations, a.
the G. o. P. strives to convert
Mr.. Kennedy's acknowledged
power and popularity into ar
argument for electing more
Republicans to Congress.
Representative Bob Wilson
the California Republican who
heads his party's CongtesSiona,
Campaign Committee, ex-
planned the strategy in an in
terview today.
The American people," he
said, know our country has
grown great under the conSti-
tutional system of checks and
balances. They know the dan
gers Of entrusting all power to
one group. They know We got
along pretty well for six years
with President Eisenhower and
a Democratic Congress.
We're going to appeal to
their sense Of fairness. We're
going to ask them to give Pres
ident Kennedy a Republican
Congress"
Implicit in the Republican
argument is a confession of
failure Of the party's past ef-
fort to paint Mr.. Kennedy as
a weak and wobbly President.
Mr.. Kennedy's continued
high ratings in the public
opinion polls, topped off by his
show of force in the steel sit
uation, apparently have per-
suaded the G. o. P. leaders it is
futile to belittle him.
Instead, they now hope to
make his own sense of power a
political liability by raising in
the country a Specter of one
party, one-man rule.
Republican Warnings
Whether the strategy will
work any better than the old
remains to be seen. But the
outlines of the new portrait of
the President Republicans will
draw are already visible.
They will say he has tried
to take over Congress by pack
ing" the House Rules Commit
tee and by pressuring legisla-
tors through his control of
Federal projects, patronage and
contracts.
They will warn that his
policy Of appointing Democrats
to virtually all vacant Judge
ships endangers the indepen-
dence Of the judiciary.
They will note with alarm
his increasing command of the
regulatory agencies. They will
dwell on the strong control
his Pentagon team is exercising
over professional military men
and the separate services.
They will say Attorney Cen
eral Robert Kennedy exerts un-
precedented authority in Fed
eral, State and even foreign
relations without being respon-
sible to anyone except his elder
brother.
They will complain that the
administration cloaks its ac-
tions in propaganda and Sec
recy and warn that unless Re-
publicans are given the right to
use the investigative powers of
Congress there will be almost
no check on executive authority.
Steel Is Major Example
But most of all in the months
just ahead they will cite the
steel case as an example of the
abuse Of power.
In their statement last night
Senate Minority Leader Dirk
sen and House Minority Leader
Halleck did not argue that steel
prices should go up.
I'VE condone nothing in the
actions Of the steel companies, >
they said, except their right
to make an economic judgment
without massive retaliation by
the Federal Government"
The thrust of their criticism
was directed to the manner ir
which Mr.. Kennedy acted. They
said "the President directed Of