Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-02-09
PENROSE FACES
DEFEAT in WAR
ON BRUMBAUGH
rIn-State Members of House
Afraid to Pass Inquiry
4 Measure
FEAR POLITICAL DEATH
p;l Too Evidently a Factional
Fight Proposition-Lawyers
May Not Serve

pprSRt-RG Feb. 9.-Senator Penrose
a. facing the biggest fight in his political
~reer in attempting to force the passage
- the Sproul resolution calling Tor an IN
s.ast,gation Of Governor Brumbaugh and
~. STATE administration in the House of
nrosantatiyes. The senior Senator has
s.n,vht the full power of his political and
S,.Jress connections to bear upon the mem.
hsrs in an effort to swing them INTO line
a. support of the resolution.
The Representatives are being called up
almost hourly by big business interests and
6y influential personal iriends VINO are
aligned with the Penrose iorces III t'e PRES
ant factional fight. =
me members who come from outside of
ph,jadelphia are bitterly opposed to the
sronosed investigation. and IL they support
Il when 1t comes up for final passage by
the Legislature in the House next Tues
Say n will only be because they are obeying
strict orders from Penrose. The investl-
sat,on is being handed around like n hot
sron among the persons associated with It.
even the counsel who had been scfected to
conduct the probe are fleeing from IT,
SCARLET WILL NOT SERVE
psnrose and his war board" selected ex-
Judge James Gay Gordon and James Scar
la of Daville, who prosecuted the Capitol
graft cases. to handle the legal end of the
ionp-promised probe. Scarlet today informed
many of his personal friends that he would
not have anything to do with such a
sI,exow" as the Sproul bill proposes. The
up-State members of the House have adopt
ed the view that the investigation as pro-
nosed in the Sproul resolution would kill
them politically in their home districts be-
cause of the purely partisan nature of the
probe.
I'VE discharged our obligation to Senator
Penrose when we voted for Baldwin for
Speaker and we cannot afford to touch any
such an investigation as this said one
Of the most prominent upstate House lead
ers today.
The lengths to which the Penrose forces
have gone in the fight over the probe reso-
luton is shown in the Senate vote. one
of the Senator's, who, incidentally, voted
against the measure, even received cable
rram from a personal and business asso-
ciate who is stationed in Petrograd. Rus
sia The cablegram formally asked him to
vote for the resolution. Even the Senators
who voted for the measure are today re-
lating the fact that they would not have
voted for Il had they not recognized the
fact that they would have Inundated Sen
ator Sproul by defeating it.
Sproul sponsored the resolution and open
~ led the fight for its passage in the upper
house Personal friendship and display
Of senatorial courtesy" caused some of
tnem 10 line uID III support VI the pTODc dS
proposed. Senator Penrose IN mis- efforts
to force It through the House also is be-
littling the possibility of a taxpayers suit
to tie up the investigation in case the meas
ure is passed by the Legislature and signed
by the Governor
LIE PASSED TO HECHT
Chairman James F. Woodward, of the
House Appropriations Committee, today
passed the lie to Representative Herman
l. Hecht, who represents the home district
Of Mayor Thomas B. Smith, and declared in
q statement that Hecht not only failed tc
deliver a speech credited to him before the
Appropriations Committee when that body
passed upon the Sproul resolution, but that
Hecht had even come to him and personally
apologiZed.
Senator Penrose also believes in prepared
ness. The resolution introduced in tht
House on wednesday by Speaker Baldwin
Is a "backstop" for the investigation. Tn,
Baldwin resolution, for which the Speaker
went down to the floor of the lower house
to urge its passage, will be for a standing
committee of the Legislature.
PERSONNEL OF BODY
1t will consist of the chairman OF TIL,
Appropriations. Education and Roads Com
mittees of both houses and of the chair
man of the Ways and Means Committee O
the House and the Finance Committee O
the Senate with the Speaker of the Hous,
and the President pro tempore, of the Sen
ate ex-offlcio members.
The committee on the face of the resolu
tion is empowered to recommend legisla
ton for additional revenue. Under tn
plea that the State needs $4,000 revenu
for the next two years, an increase o
more than $5,000,000 oyer the apprppria
s tons Of two years ago. the committee cal
Investigate" not only Governor Brumbaugl
but also every department and bureau o
the State government.
Senator Penrose last week called atten
tion in a public statement to the fact tina
the investigation may be thrown into tn
hands OF a standing committee OF the Legis
hture in the event of the defeat or the vet
e OF the Sproul resolution. Even the Penros
leaders admit that the revenue committee
v the standing committee organized 70
this purpose