Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-10-11
WESTERN SENATORS
HOLDING CONTROL
Of REPUBLICANS
BY ROBENT r. SMALL
Copyright, 1921

LnaC great Work OIL eNoluIloll -"
going on within the ranks Of the
all-dominant Republican party.
Control Of the party slowly but
definitely Is falling into the hands
of the western elements. The proc
ess of attrition has been so gradual
that few have appreciated it's ex-
tent. But call them radicals, or pro-
gressives, as you will, it came to be
an admitted fact today that these
elements have developed a strength
and a solidarity which permits them
to dictate just what the party shall
or shall not do.
1t is with something of wrench
the grand old party drifting out of
the restraining influence of the con-
sentative east, out of the keeping
Of the prim New England states
and Of powerful Pennsylvania which
so long have welded a dictatorship
over 1t.
For be it known that Senator Pen
rose and his all-prevailing finance
committee have been compelled to
bend the knee to the so-called agri-
cultural bloc, which is nothing more
or less than an organized group of
the determined senators of the west.
Time was when Senator Penrose at
the crack ofe the whip could have
formed all the Republican senators
into line and trained them in a cho-
rus of "ayes" which would have put
through any form Of tax or tariff
legislation which he desired. But
that time is no more. The west has
risen. The west is feeling its
strength. The west has very plain
ly told the east that it was the west
which gave the Republican party
control of the senate, that it was the
west which produced nearly all the
new Republican senators for this
can ticket last November swept
every state west of the Mississippi
river with the exception of Arkan-
sas, Louisiana and Texas, it welded
new and powerful influence for
the west in the affairs of the party.
Senate Holds Control
The situation in Washington def
nitely has developed the fact that
party control at the present time
rests entirely in the senate Of the
United States. The senate is all
powerful. 1t can set at naught the
best intended action of that more
popular branch of the national legis-
and it has shown only too we'll that
it can veto virtually every act of the
president If it be so minded.
The realization has come to Wash
ington with greater force than ever
therefore, that the elements which
control majority in the senate have
an all but complete control of party
plans and policies. 1t remains conse-
quently for the present majority in
the senate, to whom President Har
ding must look for the execution Of
administration plans to preside over
the destinies of the Republican par
ty in the next three years.
Control and leadership of the Re-
publican party in the senate have
been so long vested in the east as
to have become traditional. This
tradition in itself makes the new
developments difficult of realiza ton,
but just as surely as the party
itself sprang from the west, so the
direction of it is taking now its
westward way.
An analysis of the situation among
the Republicans in the senate, how
ever, is tremendously Illuminating.
The Republican strength today is
sixty senators. Thirty-three of these
come from states bordering upon or
lying west of the Mississippi river.
Five more come from the middle
western states of Indiana, Michigan
and Ohio.
From New England and the east,
including West Virginia, come 22 Re-
publican senators.
VESTS Majority
Here we have a total OF thirty
eight midwest and far western Re
publican senators against an east
the middle western strength should
at any time be counted with New
England and the east, the Mississippi
and far western states still would
have majority Of thirty-three to
tWenty-seven.
But this is not all. If the Re-
publican sweep Of last fall was an
indication of a more or less perma-
nent RepublicaniZation of the far
west, Republicans of that section will
have an opportunity in the next three
years to elect nine additional sena-
tors. The Republicans of New Eng
land and the east will have an oppor-
tunity to elect but two additional sem
ators, with possibility of losing one
or two in state like Maryland.
1t is not difficult, in view Of these
figures, to understand why the west
ern Republicans are coming to the
fore, why they are imposing their
Will upon the party, and why they
are saying Of measures which have
failed to meet their favor they shall
not pass" It is perfectly true that
there are scattered conservatives
among Republicans Of the west, like
Warren, of Wyoming, and Smoot, of
Utah, and Phipps, of Colorado, but
the progressive element is dominant
and militant.
-
line" leaders of the party have had
with tax legislation is but a fore
runner Of the troubles to come when
the tariff is tackled in the senate
Time was when the groups of sena-
tors from the manufacturing states
Of the east could dictate the tariff
schedules with an absolutism OF
which the all but forgotten car of
the Russias might once have envied
But the last time the eastern Re-
publicans dictated a tariff in the
shape Of the Payne-Aldricb bill. it
skies In a deluge which swept the
party completely out Of power and
kept 1t out for eight long years.
"glocs" Show Strength
The western senatorial "blocs" now
showing their strength in the senate
have more pronounced views upon the
tariff than they have upon taxation,
and when the party undertakes to
rewrite the house tariff bill in the
senate, new evidence will be given
Of the departure from procedures of
the past. Those Republican sena-
tors who have not as yet reconciled
themselves to the ascendancy of the
west in the control of party matters
and national legislation regard it as
matter of grave concern that the
party of protection has not in the
months that have interviewed since
last April made greater Roadway
with a tariff bill. The tucker they
realize the new order in the party,
the sooner the tangled legislative pro-
gram will be Strengthened out.
The party evolution which Is in
progress naturally has brought about
some friction and President Harding
just rs naturally has been somewhat
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