The Congress: An Adequate Number of Democrats

(See Cover) It was during the President's usual nap time, and it took a little while before the call was put through. Finally, Carl Albert, majority leader of the House of Representatives, was able to say: "Mr. President, I'm here with the new minority leader, Jerry Ford, and the dean of the House, Manny Celler, to report that the House is organized and ready for business." "That's fine," said Lyndon Johnson.

"I'm glad to know what's happening." Soon afterward, with the parliamentary pomp, the exhilaration and the confusion of the opening sessions over, Oklahoma's mite-sized (5 ft. 4 in.) Carl Albert was back on the House floor, ready for almost anything that might happen in the 89th Congress. Strolling among the desks, Albert sized up and greeted the neophytes. "Hi, how are you getting along?" he asked, extending his hand. "Come by and see me if I can help you in any way." One eager new comer asked when he could make a speech. Albert replied briskly: "When you feel ready and have something to say. Beyond that, there are no holds barred."

Enough for Two. All week long, the freshmen in both House and Senate moved uncertainly through their new surroundings. They were a diverse group, among them a machinist from Wisconsin, a mortician from New York, a spice merchant from Michigan, a labor leader from New Jersey, and a college dean of men from Iowa. Many have names that carry family echoes of one kind or another; in addition to Bobby Kennedy joining his brother Ted, they ranged from Maryland's Democratic Senator Joe Tydings, stepson of the late Millard Tydings, to California's Representative John Tunney, son of the former heavyweight champion. Many were symbols of political upheaval: a Democratic Congressman from Maine who won by 40,000 votes, a Republican from Mississippi who won by nearly 7,000, and a Democrat from New York's suburban Westchester County, the first of his party elected there in over 50 years. There were 20 Roman Catholics, 63 Protestants, six Jews and ten who professed no denomination among the 99 newcomers to the 89th (there are now 107 Roman Catholics in Congress, with 88 Methodists in second place). They were youngish, the average age being 44.

But mostly they were Democrats—71 in the House, six in the Senate. And they helped set the cast of Capitol Hill for the next two years—the most lopsided Democratic Congress since the one that convened in 1937. If Lyndon Johnson has anything to say about it, it will also be one of the hardest-working sessions in memory, for he means to use it as his springboard to the Great Society. Contemplating the President's legislative program, Senator Everett Dirksen remarked wearily that "there would easily be enough to engross the time and the attention not of one but of a number of Congresses."

Yet chances are that Johnson will get most of what he is asking for in this session.