ABSTRACT
Our national legislative assembly is still a continental Congress. Our party system has not provided sufficient agreement on principles to dictate policy. Party discipline is limited—when it has been effective a strong president has directed Congressional leaders. Our legislative system tends to play into the hands of lobbyists. Neither in the presidential office nor in the Congressional leaders does sufficient authority reside for imposing the discipline needed to offset the fear of sectional and group interests. Congressional behavior shows that "political pickings" may at times be reduced to bones of contention. Members of Congress in the past have not responded readily to party controls. The intellectual leadership of the New Deal has not been in Congress. In the elections of 1938 the president sought as members of Congress men who would support his measures. Congress is composed of politicians whose political lives depend upon the loyalty of one Congressional district.
