New-York tribune., 1918-02-24

WEN Senators are not immune from
r. the Ills Of mortals, and Senator
Chamberlain. after going through
several wordy battles on the Senate floor
without more than a psychic scratch here
and there. has gone down before appen-
dlctis. An operation on the Senator
from Oregon has. it seems now assured,
proved entirely successful
Visitors to the Captol-and doubtless
some enterprising statistician will dis
cover that Washington doesn't fall far
back of New York in their number-sel-
dom understand from the galleries Of
Congress that the significant moments in
the careers of the men who write ''The
Congressional Record' are only a few
drops IN the large ocean of their lifetime
Senators have wives, daughters, sons, per-
sonal interests of hundred kinds. and
they do a hundred things that never get
into the society columns of Washington
newspapers. Being sick is one of them.
There is a general feeling here among
Democrats that, despite the little exchange
OF courtesies between President Wilson
and the head of his military committee
over the war cabinet bill, Senator Cham
berlam Is too valuable an Administration
aid to get on we'll without He has been
chairman of the Senate Committee on
Military Affairs since the first of the wiz
son Administration. The draft legisla-
ton owes much to his vigor, and when
Senator Gore refused to pilot the food bill
Chamberlain put his hand to it and
brought it to a successful issue. He is
kindly faced man, evidently plain man
in the sense of scorning the conventional
frock coated adornments of the usual
legislator. and he has manifested rather
subtle sense of fairness in most of his
dealings.
incidentally, Senator Chamberlain comes
originally from a state that has fathercd
many Sterling" Democrats. Before Sen
ator Lelands death both Senators from
Nevada were from Mississippi, and with
the addition of Senators Williams and
Nardaman, Chamberlain made fifth who
looked back to youth in the land of plan
tatons
Oregon just now is a Republican state,
but in the Far West political classitca
tions do not have a great deal of potency.
especially where men in political life have
enough that is significant about them to
allow them to leap over the barriers of
political caste. At any rate. the political
complexion of the state has not greatly
affected the position Of Chamberlain, Dem
ocrat though he may be. He was Attorney
General Of the state, in which he began as
country school teacher, and was twice
elected Governor. He came to the Senate
through a peculiar combination of cir
cumstances. The State Legislature of Ore
gon was preponderantly Republican, but
by reason of the referendum system in
use the people of Oregon voted overwhelm
ingly to have the Legislature send Cham
berlain to Washington. He has been here
SINCE 1909. His present term, which is
his second expires in 1921.
NENATOR HIRAM JOHNSON, of Cali
~ fornla, newer to the Senate, is an
other Westerner who is being watched in
Washington for the part he is expected to
play IN the national political game Sen
ator johnson, who won his spurs in the
Progressive campaign, is not an orator of
the old school, but he managed to inject
good deal of fire into his death sentence
OF private railroad management delivered
on the Senate floor Tuesday, 1t was Sen
ator Gallinger, of New Hampshire, who
drew from the Californian the remark
that he did mot object to restraining"