Daily Kennebec journal., 1911-01-16

members of the House of Representa-
tlVes are buSily preparing for the
unique party caucus next Thursday
night. which all Democratic repre-
SentativeS-elect are expected to attend
The actual effect of the caucus is in
tended to commit the Democratic ma
jority of the next House to an or
ganization TO be perfected next win
ter.
1t is expected that a committee on
ways and means. the body which
frames the tariff laws in their initial
jt2"es, will be chosen, tho method
Of designating the personnel of stand
ing committees will be determined, and
selection Will be made for Speak
er of the House. The selection OF
Champ CLARK of Missouri. the present
minority leader, apparently is a fore
gone conclusion, as more than a ma
jority Of the Democrats of the next
House already have pledged them
selves to lis election.
Nearly all of the Democratic Lead
erS favor the selection now of the
membership of the ways and means
committee. in order that there shall be
no delay in beginning work on the ta
rift revision program to which the
Democrats are pledged. The ma jor
ity of the committee intends To be-
gin work at once, although the Re
publican minority Of the committee
probably will not be chosen until the
new House is created next winter.
This delay viii not be Il handicap
to the Democrats. as they intend to
follow the custom of excluding the
minority from the framing of thu bill,
just rs the Republicans, when they
were the majority. excluded the Dem
oeratS until their bill was ready to
report
The slate which seems to find favor
with most of tie Democratic leaders
gives the Craftsmanship of the ways
and means committee to Underwood of
Alabama ard dsposcs of the remain
ing places as follows:
Peters, Mass; Harrison. y. Y;
Palmer Penn. Dixon, Ind; james,
Ky; Hammond, Mimi; Hughes, n.
j.; Shackleford. Mo-; Randell Texas;
Brantley, Ga; Kitchen, y. C.; Hall,
Tenn; and Rainey. Ill.
The $, electors aside from reasons
of fitness. have been made along geo
graphical lines.
The method of selecting committees
is not expected to be disposed without
contest although the declaration is
freely made by many leaders that two
thirds of the Democrats of TIE next
House. favor the selection by caucus
of u "Committce on committee on COM
mittees." II may be that the members
of the House will come back from the
harmony conference In Baltimore
Tuesday in such a Complacent mood
that a fight over the appointments OF
committees can be avoided, although
few are sanguinc of such a result.
In connection with the naming of d
committee to frame a tariff bill the sit
uation in the Senate is interesting. IL
that House the tariff measures are
handled by the committe on finance
the personnel of which will undergo a
considerable change in the next Ses-
sion Although the Senate still vii
be Republican, four of the Republican
members of the comnitte as not con
stituted will not be members of the
next Congress. Those who Will droI
out at the end of this session are
Chairman Aldrich, Burrows, Hale anc
Money and Taliaferro have not beer
elected to the next Congress and there
is a vacancy because of the death OF
Senator Daniel. If the total member
ship of the committee is only II and
therefore in the next session half ot
that number will be new to the tar
ffmaking.
Insurgent senators are planning
to demand places on the finance com
mittee on the ground that their Sc
lection is necessary to insure down
ward revision. On this issue, they
confidently count upon Democratic sup
port in the event they are excluded by
the Republican committee on commit
tees which nominated for committee
places. If the committee on commit
tees of the Senate should recommend
for places on the finance committee
only such Senators who believe next
year is too early for another revision
of the tariff, the prospects are that
there will be a contest on the Senate
floor over the adoption of the COM
mittee's report. A combination of In
surgent Republicans and Democrats
it is conceded, might easily overturn
Republican control of the Senate and
allow the Democrats to revise the tar
iff as they please.
Administration senators have given no
little thought to the situation. In case
of a combination such as has been sug-
gested in informal exchanges of views
in cloakrooms and corridors. the only
hope of senators who oppose radical tar
if revision is said to be for the Execu-
tive to veto any tariff measure passed.
There is little doubt that the House,
which will have an almost unwieldy DEM
ocratic majority, would promptly pass the
bill over the Presidents veto. This
would not be so easy in the Senate. for
although Democrats and fnsurgent Re-
publicanS colld muster n aiorty II is