The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-03-12

meddling of Bryan with the affairs of
the House has gone up In smoke, and the
democratic caucus of that body was as
! harmonious as a wedding party.
Tariff matters have been left to Mr..
:, Underwood where they should be, and
where everyone wanted them, and the
organization of the ways and means
committee was to the liking of the demo-
cratic floor leader President Wilson
takes naturally to his new work. and
gives every evidence of having intentions
to conduct business administration
and of keeping nothing back from the
public
Not So Well in Senate
But in the Senate all was not SO well.
The Senate seems to be far more crowded
with petty politics" than the House,
and they were in full evidence In the
struggle for power in the democratic
caucus of the upper body Senator Smith
of Georgia, a leader in the movement of
the progressive" democratic senator's
for the overthrow of the much discussed
seniority rule and supposedly represent
ing to a large degree the views of the
administration in the policies he has been
advocating, also a member of the steer
ing committee, was roughly handled In
the caucus by the defeat of his colleague,
Seantor Bacon, for president pro tempore
of the Senate. O'Gorman of New York,
also close to Wilson, and believed to be
more in the confidence of the President
than any other senator, lead the fight
against Bacon, and for Clark of Arkan-
sas, for the coveted position and devel-
oped power in the Senate hitherto un-
suspected.
Distribution of Chairmanships
Senator Bacon will get the chairman
ship of the foregn relations committee,
as in fact will all the other senators who
by right of seniority on the committees
get the chairmanships, Senator Johnston
getting military affairs and Senator
Bankhead postoffices and post roads,
two of the most important committees of
the Senate. Nevertheless, the defeat of
Bacon for president pro tempore was
unlocked for, as 1t was sudden and over
whelming. and this, coupled with the de-
feat of Martin of Virginia, as the caucus
chairman, has created a little group of
very sore toed senators on the demo-
cratic side who will have to display a
lot of patriotism and be able to forget
their own disappointment--to say nothing
of wrongs. to fall into line and do effec-
tive team work. This is the only cloud,
and the leaders declare 1t to be slight,
and that in a few days the situation will
be accepted by everyone as the fortunes
of war, for after all, 1t was nothing but
an equitable division of the honors and
prestige
In spite of the fact that great pressure
is being brought upon the President to
give early attention to the currency
question, it is believed that he will not
recommend to Congress anything but the
tariff for the special session 1t is un-
derstood that the President favors the
Underwood plan of passing the tariff in
schedules and that the House pass them
over to the Senate one at time so as to
focus the attention of the country and
the press on that body while it has them
under consideration. This will have a
great tendency to keep down trades"
and compromises and will be productive
of getting through the Senate the tariff
legislation nearer in line with the bills
which are passed by the House.
After the assistants to the various cab
met officers are appointed, and the dip
lomatic service is disposed of, the ap-
pontments are going to come very slow.
This is bitter disappointment to many
office seekers in washington, but they
will have to stand it, and 1t permits
some of them at least-to remain in hope
that just much longer.
Wants Information on Appointments
1t is evidently the intention of the
President to get all the information he
can before making an appointment to
office, and to also permit the senators
from the several states to have their say.
He has not bound himself to abide by
the recommendations, but there is little
doubt but what he will be guided by their
advice to a large degree. He consulted
Senators Bankhead and Johnston regard
ing General Graves for Assistant Secre-
tary of War, and he will follow this
policy right through he has indicated.
There are over 200 appointments to
places where commissions have already
expired TO be worked off. MANY of these