The Struggle for Power

This week Administration Democrats were trying to put Humpty Dumpty together again.

Unlike the Republican 80th Congress, the Democrats would organize the 82nd. The Republicans would wield a balance of power without having to answer directly for what Congress did. They had not planned it that way, but they were mightily pleased that it was to be that way.

Though the Republicans gained 30 seats in the House, the Democrats still had a majority of 36. Texas' Sam Rayburn would be re-elected Speaker, Massachusetts' John McCormack majority leader. All chairmanships would remain in Democratic hands, but the chairmen of 13 of the 19 standing committees would be Southern Democrats. According to their political records, House members would divide roughly into 54% against the Fair Deal, 46% for it.

New Leader, New Whip. By virtue of a shaky 49-47 majority, the Democratic Party would also organize the upper house. But in the Senate the loss of Scott Lucas and Francis Myers posed a formidable problem. The Democrats had to find a new majority leader and a new whip.

The Southern bloc had enough votes to grab one or both jobs if it wanted them. Georgia's energetic Richard Russell, who was the Dixiecrats' choice for President at the national convention in 1948, was talked about. Russell as majority leader, running Senate legislation, might be more than Mr. Truman could bear. Russell himself was not willing to play the role of presidential advocate. Compromise candidates were discussed: Wyoming's New Dealing O'Mahoney, 66, sharp and shrewd but in poor health; New Mexico's Clinton Anderson, 55, a faithful party man but solidly opposed to Mr. Truman on the Brannan Plan; Arizona's Ernest McFarland, 56, meek and mild and notably neutral.

Democrats will still hold the committee chairmanships, although here again Southerners will predominate. Unless he takes the majority leadership, Russell will succeed the defeated Tydings as chairman of the Armed Services Committee. Here the Administration would find a strong right arm in Russell, who served in the Navy as an enlisted man in World War I.

Montana's short-tempered James E. Murray will step into the Labor Committee chairmanship vacated by the beaten Elbert Thomas of Utah. Murray may prove almost too strong a right arm. A roaring pro-labor man, several times in the past he has almost come to blows in committee meetings with Robert Taft.

On the basis of their new strength in the Senate, Republicans will demand and probably get a bigger minority representation on committees. They will demand six out of 13 places on the influential Foreign Relations Committee.

"You Know the President." These were some of the congressional problems which confronted Administration Democrats this week as Mr. Truman prepared a message for the lame-duck 81st Congress, due to reconvene on Nov. 27. Mr. Truman showed no signs of backing away from his program. "You know the President," said one White House adviser. "He never retreats."

The fact is, the President does retreat. While still bugling all the notes of the Fair Deal, he retreated, for example, from the legislative front line on FEPC, repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act. Whether he retreats or not in the 82nd Congress will not make much difference. If he doesn't, he will be immobilized.

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