DEMOCRATS TURN THE SCALE
ipRESIDENT Eisenhower's high conception of his office as implying an aloofness from the hack-work of party politics—illustrated by his recent withdrawal into the mountains for nine weeks on the eve of the mid-term elections—has proved wiser than the advice of the party caucus Which induced him to indulge in an undignified last-minute intervention. It was on the cards that his party would lose votes, and, by associating himself with their campaign, he was likely to damage their most important political asset—his own great prestige. In fact the political tipsters were right: the elections for Congress have resulted in the Democrats gaining control of the House of Representatives. Their majority is not, perhaps, spectacular but it is sufficient. They now hold 232 seats in a House of 435.
The reasons for this swing cannot yet be assessed with con- fidence, but it is an abiding tradition of American politics that the party in power loses votes at the mid-term elections, and, to this extent, some of the losses can be discounted as the normal swing of the pendulum. Yet the turnover is greater than-might have been expected, and other factors must have Played their part. Dissatisfaction among farmers at the administration7s agricultural policy, annoyance among industrial workers ai the unfortunate 'gun dog' speech by MT. Wilson, Secretary of Defence, and a growing disillusionment With the ' witch-hunting ' tactics of a section of the Republican Party (Mr. Kersten, who had campaigned on the anti- communist platform. was defeated in Senator McCarthy's own state Wisconsin)—all these things may have weighted the balance too heavily for President Eisenhower's last-minute intervention, energetic and fast-moving though it was, to have any considerable effect. . What effect will this defeat have upon the President's own Immediate position ? According to the popularity polls, his Prestige, up to the elections was undiminished, and, however annoyed Republican party bosses may feel at his earlier aloof- ness (and there is some evidence that they will feel annoyed). they will have to remember that it is the President who is carrying the party in the country and not vice versa. As to his relations with the new Congress, only the future will show whether or not we are in for one of those periods of stultifying deadlock which tend to occur when the White House and Capitol Hill are at loggerheads. But it must be remembered that, as Mr. Richard Rovere recently wrote in these columns, 'the Democrats in Congress have given the President more support than the Republicans have.' In the field of foreign policy the Democrats, with their more international tradition and greater readiness to support proposals for measures like tariff reform, have more in common with the President than the neanderthalers of his own party. On domestic matters there may indeed be clashes.
However, it must be said that the change in control of Congress is bound to mean some disorganisation, if not actual disunity, in the direction of American affairs, and it cannot be denied that this is unfortunate at a moment when the utmost vigilante and decision is required on the part of Washington. It will demand great wisdom and restraint from Congressional leaders if the American government is to act with full authority in world affairs.
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