Editorials

...Thus it was that in the spring and early summer months many Republicans were increasingly optimistic about the electoral fightfor control of Congress...

...and Canada, $20;foreign,$22...

...Edward S. Skillin III Commonweal, AReviewofPublicAffairs,Literature and the Arts, is publishedbiweekly,except monthlyChristmas-NewYear'sand luly and August, byCommonwealPublishingCo., 232Madison Ave., New York, N.Y...

...A Louis Harris poll which had always been very reliable 536showed that the voting public then preferred Republicans to Democrats for Congress by forty-seven to forty-three percent--the fast time such a shift in public opinion had taken place slnce the Eisenhower years...

...The Senate is now divided between forty-one Republicans and fifty-nine Democrats...

...In theory a kind of planetary bargain could have been struck, in which OPEC agreed to hold prices reasonably steady if Western countries agreed to scale down barriers against Third World goods, give more aid, and reform the world monetary system...

...If, said the Commissioners...

...On this score there is a conflict of interest between President Carter and Democratic candidates for the House and Senate...

...COMING: David O'Brien analyzes the political paralysis of American Catholicism . Thomas Power tells why PD 59 opens anew era in nuclear' strategy...

...Despite the president's recent Vgrise in the polls, that is the question that is still haunting many Democratic senators and representatives...

...Since World War II, according to Congressional Quarterly, senators have had a casualty rate of thirty-two percent 26 September 1980:515 compared to nine percent for House members . This statistic, on top of the fact that two-thirds of the senators up for reelection this year are Democrats, made the Republican leadership a trifle cocky about their chances of winning a Senate majority as late as in August . After the Democratic convention, a few Reagan gaffes, and Mr...

...was starting out with a numerical advantage: of the thirty-fourcontests in the Senate, twenty-fourare for seats now held by Democrats...

...Commonweal:516North-South relations A PLANETARBARGAIN...

...this time they have to run with a presidential incumbent of their own party whose coattails may prove to be leaden...

...Carter is refusing to enter the first television debate because of the presence of Mr .Anderson .But congressional candidates estimate that Anderson's candidacy may bring to the polls millions of moderate and liberal voters who might otherwise stay home in disgust ; such voters, they calculate, would support Democratic House and Senate candidates rather than conservative Republican contenders . Indeed, some calculate that this factor alone might save eight Senate seats and as many as twenty-five House seats for the Democrats...

...most are considered safe, in marked contrast to their Democratic counterparts...

...Singlecopy,$I...

...10016.Telephone: (212)MU3-2042.Yearlysubscriptions,U.S...

...Why were Republicans more optimistic about the Senate...

...It would not take a huge shift in electoral sentiment to shift the balance of power in the Senate...

...That is one reason they are, contrary to many people's opinion, less vulnerable than their senatorial colleagues...

...takeover in 1982...

...At this point Mr...

...Carter's subsequent rise in the polls, it became the turn of the Democrats to wax optimistic . Democratic leaders now express confidence that they will retain control of both House and Senate this fall, a control they have maintained for a quarter of a century, although probably with slimmer majorities than they now enjoy . Speaker of the House Thomas P. O'Neill expects a net loss of not more than ten to eighteen seats in the House, and majority leader Byrd has reversed himself on his former fearful predictions, now saying that it might even be possible that the Democrats would win additional Senate seats . A hard-to-figure aspect to all this is the Anderson candidacy...

...No wonder that some months ago Senate majority leader Robert C. Byrd publicly admitted his fear that the election might turn him into the minoril~y leader...

...In part, this was because representatives in the House are less conspicuous than senators, less identified with controversial national issues...

...In a situation where they felt they needed a strong head of the ticket, Democrats in Congress who were up for reelection feared that Carter would drag many of them down to defeat with him...

...In any case, whatever the ultimate effect of the Anderson candidacy, the Democrats would be wise to run scared . For the first time since Herbert Hoover, they are going into the November race with the economic issues heavily weighted against them, and on election day normally Democratic voters may stay home by the thousands . Indeed, present poll predictions indicate that this year's turnout will no more than match that of 1976 when, at fifty-four percent, it was lower than it had been in the previous twenty-eight years . Democratic candidates are running with a presidential nominee considered by many even inside his own party to be inept and inefficient . Despite current Democratic optimism about the House and Senate contests, if Carter does run a poor race, he could still drag the entire ticket down, and this could set the stage for a Republican takeover of Congress, if not in 1980 then in 1982, with all that such a switch would mean for national policymost immediately, perhaps, on the vital and highly vulnerable SALT H treaty...

...Nonetheless few Republican leaders predicted success in taking over the House in 1980...

...Specialtwo-yearrate: $35;foreign,$39...

...Delegates had considerable difficulty in reaching agreement because they had different perceptions of what the main problems really are .Developing countries say that poverty in their countries is generally getting worse and that the world trading system does not help them...

...Further, that the rich ought to be prepared to share a little more of their affluence .Northern countries, especially the United States and Japan,see the North-South dialogue largely in terms of energy supplies and prices...

...In the House, there are 435 contests scheduled...

...scandals associated with Watergate and Richard Nixon...

...With 159 seats now in G.O.P...

...The reform of the primary process had left them with little of 533their former influence in the choice of a nominee they thought could win in 534November, and only a handful of those in Congress were even delegates to the Democratic convention...

...hands, Republican chances of achieving the 218 seats they would need for a majority are slim...

...But during the spring and summer Republican leaders did expect to gain fifteen to twenty seats this time and thus position themselves for a G.O.P...

...of these, 274 are for seats now held by Democrats...

...Congressional Democrats are less worried now than they were as recently as 532August...

...The industrialized North has twenty-five million people out of work despite the fact that some of the goods it could produce are urgently needed in the South...

...Poetry: Rosemary Deen, Marie Ponsot Staff: Karen F. Silva, Harriette Balsky, J)acquelineReeves Advertising Manager:.Ruth E. Taylor Publisher...

...At that time most officeholders were frustrated by their irrelevance to the nominating procedure...

...Of these incumbents, half a dozen are liberals who were helped to win last time around by the G.O.P...

...I Contents IIII Volume CVII, Number 17 Correspondence514 Editorials515 A planetary bargain?: John Madeley516 Vladimir Shelkov: Walter Parchomenko517 We are exceptions: Michael B. Downing518 Ten commandments for teaching: Bernard Murchland520 Twenty-five years later: Raymond A. Schroth524 Classroom combat: Richard T. Ryan Screen: Colin L. Westerbeck, Jr...

...Peter Steinfels Assistant Editor: David Toolan Editorial Assistant: Anne Robertson Columnists: John Garvey, Frank Getlein, Abigail McCarthy, ThomasPowers Movies: Colin L. Westerbeck, Jr...

...Books II Flannery O'Connor's South: Margaret Wimsatt Catholicism: John L. McKenzie Darkness Visible: Bernard McCabe Storytelling and Mythmaking: Steve Lawson And They Took Themselves Wives: Eugene A. Maly538 On Earth As It Is/Reeds: W. S. Di Piero539 Authority: David Toolan541 Edward VH: Philip Terzian543 Rounds: J. V. Long, I11543 Staff Editor: James O'Gara Executive Editor...

...UN SPECIAL SESSION ON DEVELOPMENT AMAJOR UNITED NATIONSsession met in Nework in late August and early September to review the state of North-South relations .Officially known as the UN Special Session of the General Assembly on Economic Development the session had the task of formulating a strategy for the 1980s, the third development decade, and of launching a global round of talks on the most pressing North-South issues-energy, finance, commodities, and so on . In fact, the session became bogged down in the technicalities that have tended to characterize recent rich-poor negotiations .And yet underlying the discussions there was something of an awareness that change cannot long be delayed, because the existing North-South economic order is unsatisfactory for both sides...

...There are only seven Republicans up for reelection...

...lTHE OTHER CONTESTS I 526· 11· ILLJIMMYCARTERgo down in defeat in November, and in the process take a ~'9~goodpart of the Democratic ticket with him...

...The G.O.P...

...This was precisely the argument of the Brandt Commission report on international development issues which was published earlier this year(North-South: A Program for Survival, MIT Press,.95) . The Commission was made up of eighteen distinguished statesmen from both North and South including four former prime ministers . At the end of two years of deliberations, they were unanimous in agreeing that a formula could be worked out that would serve mutual interests and thereby satisfy all sides . The Brandt report pointed out that the present international economy is working badly for both North and South...

...Carter fears Anderson will drain votes away from him, and he and his aides tried hard if vainly to bar the independent candidate from as many state ballots as possible...

...Secretary of State Edmund Muskie put a great deal of emphasis on the importance of oil-producing countries' adopting "stable price and supply policies" and joining the consuming countries in working for rational global energy arrangements.The North was at the UN expecting changes from the OPEC group, and the developing countries were there expecting changes from the North...