PRESS COMMENT IN NEW YORK

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27499, 5 November 1954, Page 13

PRESS COMMENT IN NEW YORK

“Neither Victory Nor

Defeat” (Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK, Nov. 4. New York morning newspapers, which supported the Republicans, interpreted in leading articles today the results of the Congressional elections as no great triumph for either political party and as no defeat for the Eisenhower programme. The ‘ New York Times” said that Democrat partisans might point to the fact that they had overturned the Republican majority in the House of Representatives and, according to present figures, had gained slightly more than they lost in the Senate. But the newspaper pointed out, as did others, that in the last 10 mid-term elections the party in power had suffered an average net loss of about 40 seats in the House of Representatives. This was a greater reduction m strength than the Democrats were able to inflict on the Republicans on Tuesday. The New York "Herald-Tribune” said there never had been an “offyear” election when the American people were so analysed and their behaviour so minutely predicted as this one. Yet there was never an election when the independence of the voters

was so unmistakably asserted. This happy contradiction contained the first biggest fact about the extraordinary experience the United States had just passed through. ; - • The “Herald-Tribune” added that the unbelievably close decisions in many contests, was an indication of the way reasonable men and women had responded to actual conditions. “For in life—and especially in political life —the choice is rarely between black and white, but between shades of the same colour,” it said. “As a vindication of the democratic process, it was a wonderful election. “The Democrats made their gains, but there was no sign of a judgment adverse to the main butlines of the Republican programme. “On the contrary, the very close Senate race and the comparatively small margin by which the Democrats control the House are signs of a political strength which rarely has been demonstrated by the Administration in at a mid-term election. The Washington “Post,” which supported President Eisenhower m the 1952 Presidential campaign, said today that his Administration had sustained “neither victory nor real defeat in yesterday’s elections. “President Eisenhower’s own leadership now will be the largest factor in determining whether the country is to enjoy a period of co-operation or to suffer a costly interregnum over the next two years,” the paper said.