The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-01-05
AGRICULTURAL
BLOC PLANNING
Hopes to Control and Die
tate National Legis-
latiOn
TO PUSH M'CUMBER
FOR CHAIRMAN
VIII Put Him at Head of Senate Com
mittee On Finance to Succeed Late
Senator Penr0se - He Is Creature of
Nm Partisan League.

Senator PenrOse - He Is Creature of
NCn-Partisan League.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 1.-The bi-parti,
sen agricultural bloc" is planning to
control and dictate national legislation by
precisely the same processes employed by
the Platt-Tammany alliance in the hal
cycn days of the BLACK Horse Cavalry
at Albany.
The bloc" is preparing to celebrate its
most important individual victory by
taking advantage of the Shopworn re-
dictionary doctrine of seniority to com.
pei the selection of a dirt farmer as
chairman of the senate finance committee
in succession of Senator Penrose.
The agricultural bloc" which is the
conception of adherents of sO-called pro
gTessive' politics. does not c0ncede any
surrender to the old guard and Standpat
policies. 1t aims at the triumph of the
wheat interests of the Missouri Valley
and cotton growers Of the South over the
Wall street tinancler, the manufacturer
and the small business man in industrial
sections Of the country.
1t is the view of the progrcSsives Tin the
bloc that the ends justify the means
and that any combination is warranted
b. satisfactory results
So certain and fulfilled with power are
that they have already started in to force
upon the government their program, and
it is one that the thinking men Of the
country regard with deep concern.
The death of Senator Penrose has pro-
viGed the bloc" with an opportunity to
convince the country that every govern
ment undertaking for the benefit of the
whole people must be approved by it. Tn
less some method is devised by the senate,
which. as a body, has the whole interests
of the country and not any single part of
ii at heart. the bloc is going to score 4
tremendous victOrT within the next two
or thTre days.
The machinery has been set into mo-
ton for accomplishing this tremendous
advantage through the selection a. the
successor to the Pennsylvania Senator
Porter James NcCUmbPr Of North Da-
kota as chairman of the senate finance
committee Mr.. McCumber is one of the
charter members of the agricultural
bloc He is now the senior member of
the finance COMMITTEES. Under the archaic
and ridiculous system of seniority pre-
vailing in the senate he is in line for
the craftsmanship of the most powerful
committee in congress.
Mr.. McCumber has served four terms
III the upper house. When he was last
q candidate, almost six years ago, he was
supported by the Non-PartiSan league. Il
pUntical organization OStCnSlbly devised
as an agrarian enterprise that has
wrecked the commonwealth of North Da-
kota.
The seniority system. under which Mr..
McCumber is to be made chairman of the
finance committee does not take into ac-
count the question of temperament. fit
ness, breadth of vision. appreciation of
the manifold interests that should prop
erly be considered in connection with all
legislative projects The seniority rule
merely prescribeS that the man at the top
of the list is alone eligible to succeed to a
vacancy caused by the death or retirement
eff a chairman of committee.