The Congress: When Is a Majority a Majority?

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With a glance at the bronze-faced clock above the presiding officer's chair, Majority Leader Mike Mansfield rose in the well of the Senate Chamber. His lined, angular face was even more solemn than usual. His words came slowly and with feeling.

"There is," he said, "an ebb and flow in human affairs which at rare moments brings the complex of human events into a delicate balance. At those moments, the acts of government may indeed influence, for better or for worse, the course of history. This is such a moment in the life of the nation. This is the moment for the Senate." So saying, Mansfield moved that his colleagues "proceed to the consideration" of H.R. 7152, a 55-page bill that embodies the most meaningful civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. At last the Sen ate's civil rights debate was on.

Too Many Months. The debate is expected to last for months—"too many to suit me," says Mansfield. It may affect the political fortunes of every Senator, and of President Johnson as well. Ultimately, it is almost certain to result in a bill that will go farther than any before it to change the status of the Negro in America. But ironically, its final form depends largely on a heavily outnumbered Republican minority. For the bill's most zealous support and its fiercest opposition are both drawn from the Senate's huge Democratic majority, illustrating only too well what Pennsylvania's Republican Governor William Scranton meant when he spoke of the Democrats two weeks ago as "a deadlocked party."

There is nothing quite like a fullblown civil rights debate to bring into focus the grievous problems of leadership in the Senate—particularly when a Democratic majority is in command. As Minority Leader Everett Dirksen mellifluously puts it, there are "100 diverse personalities in the U.S. Senate. O great God, what an amazing and dissonant 100 personalities they are! What an amazing thing it is somehow to harmonize them. What a job it is."

Mike Mansfield knows that only too well. The spare (6-ft., 175-lb.) Montana Democrat has a 67-to-33 majority to work with, biggest since 1939. But on many issues—notably civil rights and Government spending—Mansfield's majority is not a majority at all. During last year's session, about 20 conservative Democrats joined with Republicans on roughly one-fifth of the Senate's bills. This brings into critical question the ability of a Democratic majority, no matter what its size, to achieve effective control of the Senate on some of the crucial issues of the day.

Too Polite. The civil rights fight is a perfect case in point. In it, Mansfield must contend with three distinct groups —a pro-rights alliance of Northern Democrats and liberal Republicans; a segregationist bloc of Deep South Democrats, plus such G.O.P. right-wingers as Texas' John Tower and Arizona's Barry Goldwater; and the fence riders, mostly middle-of-the-road Republicans who approve generally of civil rights but would like some amendments to the bill that passed the House by a 290-130 vote last month.