Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-03-09
MINORITY LEADER
IN NEXT HOUSE
Considered Likely That Speaker
Cannon VIII Take Up the
Task.
OTHER NAMES MENTIONED
Compromise Be Necessary to Find Ac-
ceptahIe Leader-Senate Republic
ans Worrying Over Successor TO
AIdric1 - Democrats Plan
Tariff Revision.
Nv GEORGE CLINTON.

{
Aldrich - Democrats Plan
Tariff Revision.
BY GEORGE CLINTON.
Washington. = Republicans of the
house Of representatives like the Re
publicans of the senate are discussing
in advance the question of the legisla-
tive leadership Of their party when at
the next session it becomes the minor
ity party. Speaker Cannon will leave
the chief chair of the house to take
his place on the floor, and there Is a
feeling among the party members that
he ought to be officially recognized by
the organization as the leader on the
floor. Whether or not he is finally rec
| ognized as leader Mr.. Cannon will
be one of the chief guides of Repub-
lican thought and one of the chief
workers along lines of opposition to
Democratic eDdeavor, but as every
body knows there is an element in the
Republican ranks which will be loath
to accept the actual officially recog-
nized leadership of Mr. Cannon.
II oCCulS d1IOSOLdSI LIZ LILO
advance view point that Mr.. Cannon
will be leader de lure as well as leader
de facto, but there are good many
Republicans who think that 1t is posi-
BILE a compromise may be made, and
some man acceptable both to organi-
cation men and insurgents may be CIV
en- recognition as actual chief. Repre-
sentative aP Vorlr 70
thor of the tariff bill, who Is at pres
ent the Republican house leader, but
there is feeling that Mr. Payne is
willing to give over the responsibility
of a position which carries with 1t any
amount of hard work. Representative
Dalzell Of Pennsylvania as far as brain
and ability are concerned Is amply
qualified for the leadership, but his
views of party procedure and of legis-
lation are not those of the progress
sives, and they probably would enter
objections Of much the same kind to
him that they entered against the lead
ership of Mr. Cannon
Mccall a Possibility.
There is Representative Samuel w
Mccall, Republican, Of Massachusetts,
who piloted the Canadian reciprocity
bill through the house at the present
session. Mr. Mccall is generally &C
counted an organization Republican,
but at times he has stood with the 9th
er faction of the party. Mr. Mccall
is one of the two or three men in the
house known as scholars in politics."
Long before the Republican party had
committed itself in a national conven-
ton to a revision of the tariff Mr.. Nc
Call had made speeches on behalf of
cuts in the schedules He was early
recognized as a tariff reformer, but
nevertheless when the Payne-Aldrich
bill was put to its passage in the house
Nj. Mccall voted for 1t and this kept
his party tariff regularity.
This Massachusetts man Is a skilled
debater and his speeches are highly
finished. 1t should be said that when
the revolt came In the house against
the rule of Speaker Cannon that Mr..
Mccall paid tribute to the speaker
which for eloquence rarely has been
surpassed in the history Of the house
of representatives. That speech made
the organization men forget Mr. Nc
Calls tariff "heresy," but it did not
endear him particularly to the oppo-
nents of the speaker.
The progressive and insurgent Re
publicans in the house like McCaITs
stand for conservation, and for half
dozen other measures and 1t is posi-
BILE that they would hail his choice as
leader with a whole heart, but it must
be said that the chances seem to favor
the selection Of man whose "organi-
cation orthodoxy" never has been in
the least questioned. So-called regular
Republicans will have majority of the
party membership in the next house
and they can do as they wish in the
matter Of selecting a leader, and the
chances of compromise choice de-
pend entirely on the belief or lack of
belief of the party majority as to
whether or not the time has come to
attempt to patch up differences.
Who viii Succeed AIdrich?
The Republicans of the senate
still are thinking over the matter
of the leadership of their party
in that body after March 4 when Sen
ator Aldrich leaves the service Sen
ator Hale of Maine during the last
days of the present session has been
acting as Republican leader, but Hale
also sewers his connection with the
senate at the end of the present SEES
sion. Senator Boise Penrose Of Penn
sylyania has been suggested for the
lt~jership, but there Is a good deal
OF opposition to his choice, coming
largely from the Republicans who
were not In sympathy with the pro-
visions of the Payne-Aldrich tariff bill,
the Republicans known sometimes as
insurgents and sometimes as progress
sives
Senator Penrose is a member of the
senate finance committee, the chair
manship of which usually carries SEN
ate leadership with it. If he Is made
chairman Of the committee, position
which he would get if promotion in
regular line were given him, he prob
ably will be made the Republican lead
er, but it IS conceivable that a prece-
dent might be broken and that the
leadership might be given to some one