The New York herald., 1922-07-17
FEAR OF NOVEMbER'S
ELECTION is BEHIND
APPEAL TO HARDING
Record Number of Both
Houses to Be Elected and
Peril Is Seen.
DEPEND ON PRESIDENT
Bonus and Tariff Muddle
Menace to Success of
Party at Polls.
BOTH LEADERS FAILURES
BOTH LEADERS FAILURES
McCumber and Fordney I'm
able to Live Up to the Ex-
pectations of Followers.
By LOUIS sEIBoLD.

Special Dispatch to THE New YoHx HERALD
New York Herald Bureau,
Washington, d. c.. July 49,
In broadcasting an s. o. s. TOWARD
the White House, Republican Con.
gressional leaders show signs Of re.
covering from the acute attack Of Do
litical hysteria which has involved
their party in many embarrassments
With thirty-four Senators and 43l
Representatives to elect--an almost
unprecedented number-these leaders
have been forced to the conclusion thai
the time has come to stop chasing un.
substantial rainbows and get down tc
business.
The majority of these leaders appear
to have been convinced at last that
the struggle for the control of Con-
gress In November will not be mate
rally affected by anything Congress
may or may not do from now until the
end Of the session. Their most aggra-
waiting problem is to extricate them.
selves from the barbed wire entangle-
ments which have been demoralizins
the Republican Congressional machine
for three months.
When Senator Lodge and other lead
ers of the upper house requested a
conference with the President to clear
up the confusion caused by the con.
fict OF views over the $4,000. 900 ,00t
bonus raid. the generally discreditet
tariff. the ship subsidy measure and
other features of the legislative pro.
gram, 1t amounted to nothing less
than confession that the party policy
in Congress has broken down.
This admission was compelled by
the realization that the most import.
ant issues which candidates for re-
election to The two houses could pre-
sent were of executive rather than
Congressional origin. 1t is an ancient
axiom In politics that the issues upon
which elections are based are devel-
oped and enunciated at least six
months before the actual contest is
held
Looking to November.
The Congressional leaders who have
appealed to the commander in chief
of their party in Congress finally
seemed to have awakened to the fact
that almost their sole hope for COM
ing out Of the November contest with
anything approaching popular in
dorsement rests In the impression
made upon the voting minds by the
achievements of the President and his
executive aids.
For four or five months Congress
sional leaders Of the party, ignoring
the executive policies and otherwise
running amuck. refused to concede
this fact. Few of them now question
it. 1t was not until the people in
several State primaries had decisively
indicated their disapproval of Con-
gressional methods and undertakings
that the leaders of the party in the
two houses began to wake UP.
Some of them are still laboring un-
der the delusion that the salvation of
their party (about which most OF
them actually care very little) and of
themselves-about which they care a
great deal--depends upon the dis
posal of three or four legislative mat
ters on which there is little unity Of
opinion.
The majority of Republican leaders
In both houses. however. have been
compelled to admit the legislative
program which they have insisted on
putting through or obstructing in de-
fiance of the deliberate judgment Of
the President and most OF the outside
party leaders. will prove Of little value
in attracting votes. It is for this rea-
son that the Congressional leaders at
tach so much Importance to the re-
suits of the conference they have re-
quested with the President.
Conference This Week.
This conference probably will be
held the coming week, after having
been postponed three times. Mr..
Harding's refusal to permit his mind
to be diverted from the critical fea-
lures Of an Industrial situation to
take up the comparatively inconse-
quential troubles of Congress, has
accentuated the demand for
his help.
II is quito probable that when he
gets around to Congress the erstwhile
rebelious leaders In the two houses
will pay more respect to his recon-
mendations than they have done.
without the influence Of the Presi-
dent behind them Senator Lodge and
the other leaders on the Republican
side of the Senate seem to be abso-
Iutely helpless TO straighten out the
snarl resulting from the dispute over
the tariff, the agitation for a bonus
Continued on pa1e Two.