Republicans May Be Minor Party, Says Javits in Forum

"The Republican Party may ceases to be a major party if it doesn't win in 1952," Representative Jacob M. Javite (R-N.Y.) said last night in the year's ninth Law School Forum on the topic "The Realignment of Political Parties."

Javitz, Senator William Langer (R-N.D.), and Representative Adam C. Powell, Jr. (D-N.Y.) all agreed that the two major parties as they stand today are unsatisfactory to the people, but none saw a clear way to an immediate remedy.

If the Republicans do not win, said Javitz, the country may he faced with fractional parties and the dangerous political instability which those parties usually bring on. He pointed out that each of the two "fringe parties" in the 1948 election received more than a million votes apiece. Javitz also called for liberal Republicans to come forward with progressive, constructive legislation, pointing out the popular conception of the Republican Party as a "stand-pat" party.

Powell emphasized the negative attitude of both political parties in regard to Soviet Russia. He claimed that "today we are worshipping mediocrity in the national government," and in asking for immediate action on the civil rights said that we could no longer "face the world with a bi-partisan foreign policy and still be Jim Crow."

Direct election of the President brought about by independent voters who are willing to organize and abolish the electoral college is the only way to uncover better leaders, Senator Langer said.

Arthur N. Holcombe, Eaton Professor of Government, acted as moderator in place of Paul A. Freund, Charles Stebbins Fairchild Professor of Law, who was called yesterday to St. Louis.