The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1921-12-11
HARDING BEGINS
FIGHT FOR LIFE OF
GRAND OLD PARTY
"BIoc" Conditions in Con-
gress Reflect World Wide
Party Disintergration
BY ROBERT t. SMALL
peciaI Correspondent Of The Age Herald

Washington, December TO-
President Harding has started a
fight for the life of the republican
), party.
u In this fight the President is to
4 have the support of the political
members of his cabinet, of John T.
Adams, chairman of the republican
national committee, and of all the
wheelhorses of the grand old party.
The fight is to be waged against
the so-called "blocs" in Congress-
which already have had such a dis
migrating influence upon party dis :
cipline, party control and party ac-
complishment.
The President sounded his first
note of warning in his address at tho
opening of Congress, and Secretary
OF War Weeks took up the cudgels
in an address in New York Thurs
day, in which he did not mince
words.
Secretary Weeks went so far as to
intimate that a return to Cannon
ism" could be contemplated with
equanimity as a means Of more eff
fective legislative action.
There are keen political observers
who see in the attempt of the blocS
to assert complete control over the
Congress a reflection of world po-
litical conditions. Party government
sis breaking down, or has broken
v down, in nearly all of the free coun-
tries. Governments are enabled to
stay in power only by making com
promise arrangements and juggling
q combination of loosely tied polit-
ical elements.
Coalition "BIOc"
David Lloyd George, one of the
foremost figures of the day, is prime
minister of Great Britain only by the
tolerance of coalition bloc in the
Parliament, made up of unionists,
liberals and national democrats. He
has no direct party majority back of
him. and is constantly hopping out
of the frying pan and into the fire
of threatened political discord, IL not
disaster. Many old party ties have
been sacrificed that Lloyd George
might live.
In France, Premier BRAND also is
in power by tolerance only, and the
thread of his political life is far
more slender than that of Lloyd
George.
The French premier virtually has
no party support he can count upon.
In the last French elections party
lines were pretty we'll obliterated,
and while a so-called nationalist
group has a majority in the French
Chamber of Deputies that group has
thus far not asserted itself by form
ing a government within it's ranks.
In Canada within the current week
there was an election in which party
lines were dimmed, If not broken,
and there win be many men in the
i Canadian Parliament who will not
feel the constant impulse of party
regularity.
Self-Determination
1t has been said that the wave OF
greater world democracy, of greater
Differentiation of peoples, grow
ing out Of the war, has had the eff
feet of breaking down party divi-
sions and blotting out party tradi-
tions.
As has already been pointed out IN
these dispatches, some prominent
party leaders, both republican and
democratic. are inclined to blame the
more recently enacted primary laws
for the challenge to party regularity
in this country. 1t would seem that
party primary system would lead
to hard and fast regulations, but
these leaders declared the contrary
is true. Candidates are often demo-
Gratis or republicans in name only,
and for purposes of election. They
owe no obligation to the party lead
ers In carrying on their fight on
party nomination, and when they at
tain office they admit no party dis.
Icipline.
Secretary Weeks is inclined to
credit great many of the ills of
Congress to the upheaval which
stamped out "Cannonism'' in the
House of Representatives and took
from the hands of the speaker the
control of committee appointments
as we'll as the arbitrary power to
Kill or promote legislation.
Then, too, the secretary, who by
the way. stands high in the estima-
ton of the President, thinks that the
speaker of the House is chosen as
the party leader and should be given
responsibility as such. But while
In the chair he should have the au-
thority to get things accomplished,
to block undesirable legislation and
to speed the legislation to which his
party is pledged.
More Power For Speaker
There has been a great deal OF
quiet talk in republican circles re-
Gently as to the advisabi1ity of once
more placing some of the old power
In the hans of the speaker of the
house. Ihere is nothing concrete in
the movement as yet but if bloc"
conditions should threaten to grow
worse in the near future there may
be an effort to restore power to the
speaker before that restoration is
made impossible by a bloc" control
which would thwart the best effort
of the constituted party leaders.
While this means remains a pos
sibility as to the House, no plan has
been worked out respecting the Sem