The Republican 83rd

For the Republican Party, the gains in the 1952 congressional elections were more than numerical. The line on the quality chart pointed upward, too.

Of the four Republican Senators who were beaten, three--Missouri's James Kem, Washington's Harry Cain and Montana's Zales Ecton--would have been liabilities to the Eisenhower Administration. The Democrats who beat them--W. Stuart Symington in Missouri, Representative Henry Jackson in Washington and Representative Mike Mansfield in Montana--are able men who know how to cross a party line. The only liberal G.O.P. Senator who was defeated, Massachusetts' Henry Cabot Lodge, also lost to a good man: Boston's young (35) Representative John Kennedy had found few issues, other than political party, on which he and Lodge could disagree.

Among the seven new Republican Senators are some men of tested high caliber, notably, Kentucky's scholarly John Sherman Cooper, who unseated Senator Thomas Underwood. Still others among the seven show promise, e.g., Arizona's Barry Goldwater, a department-store operator who ousted grey, quiet Majority Leader Ernest McFarland, and Michigan Representative Charles E. Potter, who unseated Senator Blair Moody. In some states, the Eisenhower landslide failed to pull in strong Republican candidates. In New Mexico, Ike almost tugged Pat Hurley (Secretary of War under Herbert Hoover) across the line, but Hurley finally lost to Senator Dennis Chavez in a race so close that it is being challenged.

In both houses, the Republican majority for organization purposes will be thin but sufficient. The Senate will be divided, 48 Republicans, 47 Democrats and Wayne Morse of Oregon. After years of voting with the Democrats, Morse has finally agreed with the Republicans who have said all along that he is no Republican. If Morse, now calling himself an "independent," votes with the Democrats on organization, the tie can eventually be broken by Vice President Richard Nixon.

In the House, with one race so close that it was still undecided a week after the polls closed, the Republicans have 221 safe seats--three more than a majority of all the seats.

The 1952 congressional elections turned up some other interesting characters and characteristics:

Delaware. Republican Senator John ("Whispering Willie") Williams, who was expected to have hard going against an opponent (Lieut. Governor Alexis I. Du Pont Bayard) with a wealthy political and financial background, surprised everyone. Williams' plurality(15,335) was more than twice the margin by which Dwight Eisenhower carried the state. Chief reason: citizens of Delaware heartily approved John Williams' successful campaign against corruption in the Bureau of Internal Revenue (TIME, Oct. 13).

Virginia. The three Republicans who upset their Democratic opponents and won seats in the House have an average age of 29. The youngest is Bill Wampler, 26, a Lincolnesque newspaper reporter from Bristol who traveled 35,000 miles and made 250 speeches in eight months of campaigning. The biggest margin in the three races (2,543 votes) was piled up by Richard H. Poff, 29, an air force veteran from Radford. The third of the young men, Joel T. Broyhill, 32, of the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., was a regional Nixon. When his opponent charged that some houses built by the Broyhill family's construction firm were full of defects, Broyhill took to television with his answer. Result: votes for Broyhill, publicity for his business.

North Carolina. For the first time since 1928, North Carolina elected a Republican to the House. The G.O.P. winner: Charles Raper Jonas, 47, of Lincolnton, who won the Tenth District seat. The last Republican elected from that district 24 years ago: Charles A. Jonas, the new Congressman's father and law partner.

Texas. In all the furor about Texas, hardly anyone paid any attention to the fact that Martin Dies was quietly (which is unusual for Dies) being returned to the House as Congressman at large. A Congressman from 1931 to 1945, Dies was first chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Illinois. Republican Richard B. Vail of Chicago, another former member of the Un-American Activities Committee, was the only Congressman closely identified with anti-Communist activity to be defeated. The man who beat him: old (70), breast-beating Barratt O'Hara, who was the youngest lieutenant governor in Illinois history in 1913, who beat Vail in 1948 and lost to him in 1950.

Washington. Republican Jack Westland, who took time out from campaigning to win the national amateur golf championship (at 47, he is the oldest U.S. amateur champ in history), won the House seat vacated by Democratic Representative Henry ("Scoop") Jackson, who was elected U.S. Senator. When Eisenhower campaigned through Washington, Westland, for "good luck," gave him the putter which sank the winning putt in the national amateur tournament.

Idaho. A comely Democrat, Mrs. Gracie Pfost, 46, unseated Republican Congressman John T. Wood. Her election gave Congress the largest number of women members (twelve) in history. There will be eleven women Representatives, one Senator (Maine Republican Margaret Chase Smith).

Ohio. For the first time in history, a mother and her son were elected to the House. Both are Ohio Republicans. The mother: Mrs. Frances P. Bolton, 67, who has represented the 22nd Congressional District (Cleveland) since 1940, when she was chosen to fill the vacancy left by the death of her husband, Representative Chester C. Bolton. The son: Oliver P. Bolton, 35, who will be a freshman Representative from Ohio's 11th District, which adjoins his mother's.

Kansas. Pushing upstream as the Republican flood rolled across Kansas, Democrat Howard S. Miller, 73-year-old farmer-lawyer from Morrill, ousted Republican Representative Albert Cole. The reason: Cole supported the Tuttle Creek Dam (TIME, Sept. 1), part of the Missouri River development program. Many residents of the district oppose the dam because it would require abandonment of many farms. A group of farm wives organized a motorcade and toured the district with Miller under the slogan: "Let's quit this dam foolishness."

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