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Show il. ' The Election Has Changed 1 Both Democrats and GOP j j By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. j WASHINGTON. There are two experiences which no one should miss if he can help it. Coming into Paris, the "city ! of light," and Washington, "the city of magnificent distances," at twilight by airplane. Lately I dropped down from the clouds upon Washington, with the lingering embrace of southern sunlight about me. The tiny sparkling lights below winked their welcome. But this esthetic experience ended bruskly when I left the airport. The winking lights stared, and by the time I reached the National Press club, eyes winked but they belonged to my colleagues who patrol the beat from the White Housa to the CapitoL Fresh from the innocent delights of the vacationing fisherman, I ( bragged about my tan, and then carelessly inquired: in-quired: "What is going to happen in congress next month?" One of the colleagues col-leagues answered: "Harry Truman is lucky. He owes one debt he never will have to pay to Henry Wal-' Wal-' lace. When Wal-' Wal-' lace bowed him- gressive ideas set forth in Mr. Dewey's speeches with the somewhat some-what pleistocene attitude (as one observer described it), of some of the ex-candidates for house and senate. Witness the embarrassing situation situa-tion in West Virginia, not to mention1 men-tion1 Illinois. The New York governor gover-nor simply couldn't stomach crossing cross-ing the borders of West Virginia to embrace its recalcitrant senator. Chicago on the other hand is a railway center and it was necessary neces-sary for Governor Dewey to change trains there and "in Rome do as Romans do." He did, and endorsed the Republican senatorial candidate from Illinois. But the citizens of Illinois did not. Had Mr. Dewey been elected, and had the Republican senator from Illinois been re-elected, the White House would have faced difficulties, among them the embarrassing paradox: par-adox: Sen. C. Wayland Brooks opposed the Marshall plan which Dewey strongly endorsed. Taking that as a guide, it seems possible that Brooks could have been counted count-ed upon to vote against a Dewey-Dulles Dewey-Dulles foreign policy as he did against Mr. Truman's. Liberal Thought Crowing in U. S. The election, I believe, caused thoughtful people to emerge with one idea which the entire nation, regardless of its politics, will have to get used to. The thought is not original with me, but it is one that was mentioned by the only person who did predict the election result re-sult (except the man I lost a bet to). Agriculture Economist Bean said something like this: The wave of liberal thought which appeared to have reached its zenith under Roosevelt Roose-velt is still on the upswing. Apparently the natural postwar post-war reaction stopped it, but didn't start it going In the opposite op-posite direction. Now some of you may not like that thought, but it were well to accustom oneself to the idea. Nor need you expect the pendulum ever to swing as far back as you might wish. Personally, I enjoy riding behind a spanking team in a buggy "with the fringe on top," and I wonder if we wouldn't all be better off if the Internal combustion combus-tion engine had never been invented. invent-ed. But I am willing to admit, things being what they are, that we have traffic lights and other annoying an-noying regulations. At any rate, when President Truman Tru-man takes the rostrum to deliver his message in January, he will look out on a congress which, his friends claim, he fashioned in large part with his own hand. Or I might say with his own sharp tongue from a back platform. Harry Truman went out and fought tooth and nail, no holds barred, for the kind of congress con-gress he wanted. The people, whether or not that was their only intention, gave it to him. And now as one somewhat cynical cyni-cal observer remarked to me: "Harry's got what he wanted, God help him." He has to deliver now. Baukhage self out he stepped I on the red ruffles of Miss Democrat's petticoat, and I pulled it along with him." And It was generally admitted admit-ted that much of the stigma connected with the charge of "coddling Communists" was removed when Wallace left. Like the Pied Piper (not of Bamelin, but once of Iowa) he piped away a lot of the "lunatic "luna-tic fringe" which Is the eternal headache of all political parties. par-ties. The rodents In this case (both red and pink) followed the piper's dulcet promises. But the piper was unable to take his revenge. Unlike Un-like the flutist in the poem who lured Hamelin's children away when their parents wouldn't pay the rat-exterminator, Henry's piping pip-ing titillated few Democratic ears. The voters didn't follow. There were other unwept losses among Harry Truman's alleged supporters. He won the election without the solid south. The other end of the Democratic spectrum colored by the views of those who preferred mint juleps under the fragrant magnolias, to straight Yankee or middlewestern spirits withdrew discreetly and completely complete-ly to their jasmine-curtained verandas. veran-das. This doesn't mean they won't be heard from later, but they aren't the worry they once were. While no one would bracket the conservatives with the "lunatic fringe," the Dixiecrats did cause many embarrassments to the Democrats. Dem-ocrats. Now they are at least separately sep-arately ticketed. The Republicans likewise derived de-rived certain healing qualities from the cold douche they took on November 2, not unlike Mr. Truman's. A number of their die-hards died in the struggle with the electorate. Minority-Leader-to-Be Joseph Martin of Massachusetts, is no wild-eyed radical. So what he says on the subject of change (which is what the radical always wants) is significant. Joe warned his friends back In Attleboro, Mass., a district which probably will elect him as long as he chooses to run, that the Republicans Repub-licans in the recent campaign offered of-fered the people "too many Brahmins, Brah-mins, too many plutocrats." These Republican candidates, said Joe, likewise offered too little personality, person-ality, did not appeal to the people, and formed a narrow circle which prevented what he called "expansion "expan-sion and the opening of ranks." (Of whom could he have been thinking?) "We digressed too far from the people," the former speaker said, and the "GOP must reorganize in the cities and towns, getting in new blood at every level." Joe was speaking then out of his deep political wisdom. Social Legislation s Here to Stay Rep. Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Republican national nation-al committee in the recent campaign, cam-paign, gave another significant postelection post-election warning to his party. Republicans Re-publicans must recognize, he said, that legislation embodying social gains is here to stay. So it would appear that these men, and many of the other Republicans Re-publicans who now represent the GOP in congress, are as happy to be relieved, not of a lunatic fringe like the Democrats, Demo-crats, but of an albatross around their necks. The Republicans who are trying to re-form their ranks and re-build for 1950 are by no means pessimistic. pessi-mistic. To quote Joe Martin again, he predicted that the GOP would snap back quicker than they went out. They know now, if some of them didn't before, they must keep i" step with the times. One of the great problems the Republican national na-tional committee faced in the campaign cam-paign was reconciling the pro- -mmi m |