THE ELECTION: Cause & Effect

Buried deep in the rubble of Republican defeat lay the causes of Democratic victory—a victory which will shape U.S. policies and politics for the next two years. The causes and effects of Election Year 1958:

Farm Policy

In the traditional Republican heartland between the Mississippi and the Rockies, Republicans lost eight House seats, two Senate places, at least two governorships (Nebraska is still in doubt). High on the list of causes: the political unpopularity of Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson. Taking over in 1953, Benson inherited a farm-policy mess that saw prices slumping badly while the Government poured billions into the farm economy. Trying to reverse the policy of farm government-by-handout, Benson was blamed when the agricultural recession continued. By this year, when the farm economy dramatically improved (TIME, May 12), it was too late for Ezra Benson to regain lost personal ground. "The farmers just don't like Benson," said Iowa's Republican Representative Ben Jensen, himself a winner by only 2,200 votes. "They got mad at him a couple of years ago, and they stayed mad."

Almost to a man, Democratic winners in the Midwest campaigned harder against Benson personally than against his policies. "I got up to 5-to-1 majorities in normally Republican rural areas," said Iowa's lone Incumbent Democratic Representative Merwin Coad, who increased his 1956 plurality of 198 to 16,000 last week. Yet, while attacking Benson, Coad, like a remarkable number of other Midwestern Democratic winners, is far from committed to an all-out reversal of Benson's policies. "I see a moderate reversal of the direction Benson was going in," said Coad. "By moderate reversal, I mean lifting minimum supports from 65% up to 70% or 75% of parity and looking at the limitations on production."

With a farm-policy review by the lopsidedly Democratic Congress a certainty, the Eisenhower Administration has a real problem. Should Ezra Benson stay on? Politically, it is probably too late for Benson to help Republicans by leaving. In a policy sense, Benson might hurt the policies for which he stands more by staying than leaving. But at the same time, for the Administration to dump Benson would be to dishonor a man who has fought hard and honestly for a policy aimed at ending the nation's scandalous, multibillion-dollar farm giveaway.

Right-to-Work

"Those stupid Republican businessmen," cried one of the nation's top Republican politicians on a don't-quote-me basis. "They insisted on right-to-work." Then, turning to Washington newsmen, he said: "Strike the word 'stupid.' " And then, five minutes later, he shook his head and cried again: "Those stupid Republican-businessmen." Echoed Ohio's Republican State Chairman Ray Bliss after seeing his state ticket swamped by Ohio's landslide against right-to-work: "During the past year I repeatedly warned the proponents of this issue that this defeat would be the possible consequence. They chose to ignore my warnings."