Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1909-09-30
The CONTROL OF The U. S. SENATE
The Middle and Western
States Can Break II by
Keeping Their Represent
atives Steadily in Office.


KoA KoN KoD
second term Except once, when the
state was admitted-and even In that
case the senator was reelected for a
full term after having served only
two years of his first term. Then let
us say that senators from these two
states, equally able and equally effec-
tive, enter office at the same time.
Both are assigned to equally unimport-
ant committees, because the senate,
like any business body, wants to prove
what is in those new members by see
Ing how they perform the humber
tasks, before they are given more i'm
portant tasks--at least that Is the the
DRY. Only men of tremendous and uni
versally-recognized power, possessing
special and extensive knowledge on
some subject of immediate and criti-
cal Importance, are given prominent
positions when they enter the SEN
ate; and no other new men should
be given advanced places until they
have earned them
Let us say that these two senators,
one from Rhode Island and one from
Washington, perform their duties
equally well-impress the senate as
being exactly alike. Make the state
ment even stronger, and let us say
that the western senator proves him.
self superior in mind, courage and in
dustry to the New England senator.
When they have served two-thirds OF
their first term-four years-each is
assigned to more important commit
tees. In each instance, of course, they
go to the bottom of these committees.
1t would be fundamentally wrong to
put them any place else, just as 1t
would be fundamentally wrong to put
new railroad employee above the
other men who have served the rail-
road capably for long time; and, be-
sides, the other senators already on
these committees would not consent
to have the new senators put ahead
of them. That is only human nature,
is it not?
The Law of Automatic Promotion.
"The six years of the first terms of
these two senators expire. Suppose
the state of Washington retires its
senator, and the state of Rhode Island
continues its senator. The state OF
/ Washington sends a new man, who
necessarily cannot step into the shoes
OF its retiring senator, but who must
himself begin at the beginning and
travel the same road that the retiring
senator has travelled. But the sena-
tor from Rhode Island keeps right on
he is miles ahead of his new col
league from Washington. He is not
only ahead of the western senator in
experience, in knowledge of the meth
DDS OF government and In training In
the machinery of legislation; but he
is six years ahead of him in his place
on the senate committees, in which
latter circumstance resides one tangi-
BILE source of the control of the SEN
ate.
Pursue the illustration still fur
/ Their At the end of the second term
Of this imaginary senator from Rhode
Island he is still continued in the
senate by his state, and the imagin-
airy senator from Washington Is again
retired, and again a new man is put
in his place. Again the new man from
/ Washington must begin where the
I first senator from Washington began
4 twelve years before, whereas the SEN
ator from Rhode Island now, by the
very laws Of least resistance and eff
cheney, is not only a member of the
most important committees, but is well
advanced toward the Craftsmanship of
them.
But what Is the method of placing
senators on committees in the first
place or at any time? In this method
the long service of a senator counts
still more heavily in his concrete in
( fiuence over that body. This, then, is
the method; each party holds eau
! Gus, which every senator belonging
( to that party attends. This caucus
/ first selects a chairman. BY imme-
mortal custom the oldest senator in
point of service becomes chairman OF
! the caucus by force of his seniority
In theory, the caucus is supposed to
select its chairman by a majority vote,
but custom is stronger than theory
! Unless this veteran senator, whose
! long service makes him the caucus
chairman, is actually revolutionary or
unbearably autocratic in the discharge
of his tremendously important func-
tions-which | shall describe in a mo-
mentor unless he is plainly too weak
man for the place or Extensively un-
4 pOpuldI, IL Is hot pIdCIlCdDlc 10 replace
him with any other senator. At any
rate, il never has been done.
Thus, If we pursue the illustration
of the states of Rhode Island and
Washington, the Rhode Island sena-
tor would be certain in time not only
to be more experienced and better in
formed in the work of the senate, not
only well toward the head of impor-
tant senate committees, but what is
more important from the point Of
view of the so-called control of the
senate the Rhode Island senator would
also be certain to become chairman
OF the caucus if he lived long enough;
whereas the long succession of chang
ing Washington Senator's new man
each term-would not only be COM
paratively uninstructed in methods Of
legislation, but also at the bottom OF
the senate committees and with no
chance in the world of being a power
full factor in the Republican caucus;
and, of course, without the possibility