Washington window The vote tattles
By RAYMOND LAHR
WASHINGTON (UPI)—Democratic leaders will try to translate the November note for candidates for the House of Representatives into a referendum on President Nixon's first 22 months in office.
The cynical inference could be drawn that they are more sure of keeping their grip on the House than of retaining control of the Senate or of cutting down the Republican majority of governorships.
But the party label is more important in elections to the House, and voters often respond by being for or against the incumbent and for or against the national administration. Contests for Senate seats and governorships usually involve better known personalities.
All 435 House seats are filled in national elections falling in the middle of presidential terms as well as in election years. But only about one third of the Senate seats and two thirds of the governorships are up in each national election year.
With no presidential election in 1970, candidates are freer to fit their campaigns to their constituencies. But leaders of both parties appear willing to make the Nixon administration's record the paramount issue.
Senate Democratic Leader Mike Mansfield is on record with his belief that Nixon looks like a two term President—likely to be re-elected in 1972. Not all Democrats agree.
One party leader accepts public opinion polls indicating broad support for the President, but argues that the public support is not deep and cannot be deepened unless the GOP wins control of Congress or at least the Senate in November.
Confident that the Democrats can retain control of both the House and the Senate, he projects his argument to see Nixon as a candidate in trouble seeking re-election in 1972.
For 1970, the Republican campaign is heavily weighted toward gaining the seven seats the party needs to organize the Senate. GOP hopes for winning a majority in the House are dim.
If the Democrats retain their majorities in both the House and the Senate, the GOP can comfort itself with memories of 1948, when Truman won by campaigning against the record of a Congress controlled by the opposition party.
Camper's Forum Chasm widens
The Louisiana House of Representatives recently killed, by a vote of 42 to 30, a motion to remove racial labels from hospital blood supplies.
According to regulations set forth by the U.S. Health, Education, and Welfare Department, such labels denoting the race of the donor are forbidden. Louisiana now stands to lose as much as $50 million annually in federal funds for its action.
This decision reflects the dangerous feud growing between state and federal government. The refusal of state authorities, especially in the South, to abide by federal mandates is creating a deep and treacherous chasm.
States' rights over federal rights is an old issue in the South. It is considered by many historians to be one of the major reasons for the Civil War. It may cause another conflict in the future—less violent although as decisive.
George Wallace, winner of the Alabama gubernatorial election, is one of the most vocal advocates of states' rights in America. Wallace maintains a segregation platform on the grounds that the federal government should not be allowed to force individual states into actions which may prove detrimental to its citizens. Intergration, according to Wallace, would do more harm to Alabama than good.
This harassment of the federal government must stop. During a time when there exists so little respect for authority, incidents such as the one in Louisiana can place a heavy strain on the government. It is in no position or mood to accept this form of intolerance.
History deems that the federal government should have the major say concerning the rules under which its people will live. Certainly these rules are not always applicable in some areas of the nation. In that case it is the grave responsibility of the legislators in that area to make the impracticability of the situation known to the proper officials. An indepth explanation should follow, reviewing the situation. Possible alternatives may be offered. Each case demands its own solution.
However, the arrogant public rebuke of federal mandates is senseless, time consuming, and, above all, dangerous to the safety of the nation as a whole.
Louisiana appears to possess few positive reasons for repealing the motion to remove racial labels from blood supplies. The basic arguments heard before the house to table the motion were for the most part irrationally emotional. Louisiana should, however, have a chance to state its position. This form of communication might prove beneficial.
There appears to be strong cultural differences dividing various parts of the country. It is not easy instituting national laws; so many people feel that they do not pertain to them. It is even more difficult when the people realize that the laws do pertain to them, but that they can not conscientiously obey them.
America faces some difficult and trying conflicts at home. Our national leaders must be able to handle them, especially in the case of long overdue integration. States must realize that eventually they will be forced to comply with these mandates.
Loud rebuttals will accomplish little—unless it is to deepen a gaping chasm.
'Well lookee here! I do believe I see a republican teetotaler in this democratic waterin' hole!
Congress gets over 'tiff'
Washington (UPI)—The U.S. Congress, which after two centuries has pretty well gotten over its revolutionary mad at King George III, is now about to make peace of sorts with King Charles I, who met an untimely death in 1649.
House members haven't actually made up their minds about this yet. They spent all last week working up to it, though, and by the end of this week may actually get around to burying the parliamentary hatchet inherited by the First Congress from the British House of Commons.
You may think President Lincoln had trouble with the 38th Congress, Truman with the 80th or Nixon with the 91st. But wait till you hear about Parliament and King Charles.
So they cut off his money, among other gestures. He retaliated in various ways, no doubt withholding allotments of interstate road building funds and so forth, and the lawmakers decided protective steps were in order.
They invented something called "the committee of the whole" from which the king's agent, the
Along about 1625 he started running off wars against countries like France and Spain (and not winning them either) and the Parliament with the same kind of 20-20 hindsight for which lawmakers are noted even today, took a dim view of his actions.
speaker, was barred, and in which no record was kept how members voted.
Nobody lowered his voice, one thing led to another, and pretty soon there was a civil war going which the Parliament won and Charles lost. Instead of retiring him on a pension or making him chairman of a study commission, they cut off his head.
The U.S. House of Representatives by that time, however, had discovered that what the voters didn't know rarely hurt the members of Congress. So it
That pretty well took care of the immediate problem, according to available records, but what with British tradition and all "the committee of the whole" lingered on until 1832 when Commons saw fit to drop at least the anonymity of the nonrecord vote.
went right along doing most of its legislating in "committee on the whole" with touchy, ticklish, expensive or embarrassing issues regularly decided on "teller" votes in which bodies are counted, but by no means are recorded.
A conservative liberal reform coalition is pushing a plan now to put these votes back on the record. Members aren't so much interested in ending the war with old Charley as in making peace with the home folks who more and more are demanding the right to know how their congressmen vote.
The crucial ballot, of course, if and when they get to it, will be taken under the old or King Charles rules. So don't fuss if your local paper can't carry a rundown on the vote.
BOOKS
Weybright & Talley, $10. This well researched book tells the stories of more than a dozen leading art forgers of the past century for Bastianini to De Hory. All were Europeans, because America has failed to turn out even one great counterfeiter. Many of the fakes are exhibited in the world's leading museums
THE FABULOUS FRAUDS, by Lawrence Jeppson.
Private collections are rife with counterfeits and the turnover at top auction galleries is a public scandal. Many art experts, reacting to cruel experience, are afraid to give unequivocal opinions of authenticity. Even artists have mistakenly denounced their own works as frauds.
and will not be withdrawn until increasingly sophisticated methods of forgery detection unmask them.
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The author cleverly puts all this confusion into focus. As art has become increasingly commercialized, the role of the forger has grown in filling Europe's and America's multitudinous art galleries with works by sought after painters and sculptors. There are no legal qualifications for becoming an art "expert" and some have been open to bribes. Scientific authentication of paintings is still expensive and can be wrongly interpreted.
Jeppson, a veteran organizer of art exhibitions, offers little hope that the amateur collector can avoid being duped. His best advice is to go to a respected dealer.
CAPTIVE CITY, by Ovid DeMaris (Pocket, 95 cents)—An expose of Chicago, of riots, police brutality, crime, corruption, politics, business, Mafia. Here's one especially designed for those who reflex violently on hearing the word "Chicago."
Member Associated Collegiate Press