East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1911-01-02

Washington. Jan. 2.-Nineteen hun
dred and eleven probably will remove
from the United States senate % Of
its members-one-four of its total
membership. The new year will bring
the election of new senators in more
than two-thirds Of the state. will
witness a sweeping change in that pic
turesque and long-powerful adjunct
of the upper house-the "Old Guard"
The democratic trend of the No.
vember elections will naturally have
material bearing on the senatorial
contests, but will not be so marked
as in the house, where the demo-
cratic forces change from minority
to a majority.
Two of the states-North Dakota
and Virginia-will choose two sena-
tors each.
In North Dakota. the regular term
of Senator McCumber (republican)
and the appointive term of Senator
Purcell (democrat) will expire on
March 8. Purcell was appointed by a
democratic governor last January to
fill a vacancy caused by the resigna-
ton of Senator Fountain L. Thomp-
son. The legislature elected in Mo-
vember has a large republican major
ity, and one of its first duties, and its
greatest pleasure, will be to replace
Purcell with a republican. Repre-
sentative AISLE j. Gronna, a militant
insurgent, is assured of the position.
McCumber will be reelected without
opposition.
The next Virginia legislature will
elect two senators, one for the term
beginning March 4, 1911, and the
other for the term beginning March
4, 1913. If Senators Martin and
Swanson, or either of them, have op-
position in their desire for reelection
the matter will be fought out in q
democratic primary held in the first
week of next September.
Senator Lodge in Doubt.
Friends of Senator Lodge find cold
comfort in the news from Massachus-
etts and they gravely fear that he
may follow Aldrich, Hale, Scott and
Burrows, veteran leaders of the sem
ate into retirement. The most op-
timistic of the senator's followers
speak of the situation as "close' or
doubtful"
AS the main object of Lodges en-
emies is to bring about his defeat
there is no indication who will be
chosen as his successor in case he In
beaten.
Rhode Island in its attempt to elect
a successor to Senator Aldrich, has
started a fight so big that it bulges
the narrow boundaries OF the state.
H. F.. Lippitt, a big cotton manufac-
turer, is the choice of Aldrich and
the regular republican organization.
They gave a big dinner recently to
boom Lippitt and Aldrich travelled all
the way from Washington to Provt-
dence TO attend.
Hale's seat, as senator from
Maine. is the object of a great fight
among the democrats, who captured
the legislature. The candidates in
clude Chas. A. Johnson, an able law
yer of waterville, Obadiah Gardner,
of Rockland who has been master OF
the state grange an organization OF
farmers and wields powerful influ-
ence in Maine, and who was nearly
elected governor. and William PSn-
nell, who was elected sheriff several
times, as the candidate of the ''wets"
in the rock-ribbed republican county
in which Portland Is situated.
Senator Bulkeley republican. OF
connecticut, who is serving his first
term in the senate, has a lively rival
in his contest for reelection. Former
Governor George p. Mclean has un-