Evening star., 1915-02-23
TRADE commission
|SUNDER SCRUTINY
Senators to Inquire Closely
Into Qualifications of the
Presidents Nominees.
SNUB TO REPUBLICANS
SUBJECT OF COMMENT
Senator Newlands Predicts Favor
able Report From Committee and
Hopes for Early Confirmation.

The Presidents appointments to the
new federal trade commission. sent
to the Senate yesterday. will receive
the closest kind of scrutiny by sena-
tors before their confirmation is per-
mitted. Republican senators today In
dicated that they thought the appoint
ments weak" They contended. too.
that the President had "burglarized"
the republican party in selecting rep
resentatives of the bull moose party
for minority members of the commits
sion and in ignoring the republicans
entirely. The law provides that not
more than three of the members of the
commission shall be members OF the
same party. Three democrats have
been appointed and two progressives.
The President may think that he is
justified in selecting the two minority
members Of the commission from the
bull moose party" said Senator Sher-'
man of Illinois today But the de-
scription of ghosts by small boy in
Illinois pretty well describes the bull
none.'"
Criticism of Hurley.
Senator Sherman not long ago crif-
cised Edwin N. Hurley Of Chicago, one
of the democrats appointed to the COM
mission, on the floor of the Senate.
charging that Hurley was a member of
the "insidious lobby said to be oper
ating in Washington at the time the
tariff bill was under consideration. He
has also contended that Hurley was a
partisan of Roger Sullivan in Illinois.
But Senator Sherman said today that
he had SO far found there was not much
opposition to the Presidents appoint
ments to the commission among the
democrats and that he did not propose
to tilt at windmills" as he would be
doing if he undertook to fight the con-
hrmation of these appointments If he
attempted to prevent their conflrma-
tion without support from the majority
side.
Let the democrats make all the mis-
takes they want to-" said Senator
Sherman. ~
Some of the republican leaders. how
ever. insist that the appointments
scrutiny before action is taken upon
them. They point out that the work
of the commission will be Of vast i'm
portance to the business of the coun-
should be placed on the commission
Predicts Favorable Report.
Senator Newlands, chairman of the
interstate commerce committee of the
been referred. said that he thought the
nominations would be reported favor
ably from the committee without de-
lay, and that he hoped they would be
confirmed before the close Of the ses-
sion.
Consideration was begun today by. the
committee of the nominees for the COM
mission. 1t was apparent at the out
set of the meeting that careful inquiry
into qualifications of the nominees
would be demanded and the list was
referred to a subcommittee to report
not later than Saturday. The subcom-
mittee consists of Senators Pomerene,
Robinson, Salisbury. Townsend and La
Toilette
Some of the senators expressed strong
doubt that combinations could be had
before March 4 in view of the vast
amount of work which the Senate has
before it for consideration in the few
remaining days of the session.
Whether the President would under
take to make recess appointments Of
to act upon the nominations was a
matter of conjecture. at the Capitol.
Will, Stand by His Nominees.
President Wilson met rumblings Of
Senate fight on his nomination for the
new federal trade commission today by
the announcement that he intended to
stand by them. W. H. Parry of Seattle.
wash. the President said. had been
annointed as republican. Parry
hitherto had been described as pro-
pressive republican