The Real Fight

There was not much left to the presidential campaign except counting the votes. Harry Truman might get a good share of the popular vote, but few people, outside of Harry Truman, gave him even an outside chance of getting the electoral votes necessary for election.

But a real fight remained and would continue to be waged right up to Election Day--the fight for control of the Senate (TIME, Oct. 11). It was still such a dingdong race in twelve doubtful states, that no one dared predict its outcome. If the Republicans failed to return a majority to the senior chamber of the 81st Congress, they would be unable to run its all-important committees. This fight, in fact, was a prime reason why Harry Truman and Tom Dewey took to the road last week (see below). Dewey, especially, was campaigning not so much for his own candidacy as for control of the 81st Congress.

He blew his trumpets last week for Cooper of Kentucky, Rizley of Oklahoma, Ball of Minnesota. On previous occasions he has electioneered for Pat Hurley in New Mexico, Curly Brooks in Illinois, Edward Robertson in Wyoming, George Wilson in Iowa. But he was in an odd and disconcerting predicament. As Columnist Walter Lippmann pointed out: "In most if not all of these uncertain states the Democratic candidates are not only more attractive to independent and progressive voters but are, on the great issues, much closer to Governor Dewey and more likely to support him ... In order to keep Senator Vandenberg as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, it is necessary for Governor Dewey ... to work for the election of Republican Senators who have always opposed . . . Senator Vandenberg."

This was a predicament, all right, although Dewey's course was not necessarily cynical or even illogical. In order to pursue a program, he had to exercise political control over the committees and the men who ran them. A Democratic-controlled Senate could pretty well sabotage a legislative program. A Republican Senate would make things much clearer. Dewey would then not have an alibi for failures, as Harry Truman had had with a Republican-controlled 80th Congress.

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