, 1922-07-08
Nep Congressional Chairman

THE ELECTION of william r Wood to the chair
L nanship of the Republican congressional cam
paign committee moves the leadership of that com
mittee one step farther west. Representative Wood
is from the tenth Indiana district, which empraces
the great manufacturing centers of Hammond,
Gary, East Chicago, Whiting and other industrial
communities. Mr.. Wood succeeds Simeon ID. Fess
of Ohio, who rendered his resignation in order that
he might give his undivided time to his candidacy
in the Republican primaries for the United States
senate NJ. Wood was first vice chairman and by
his elevation Representative Tilson of Connecticut
becomes first vice chairman AMI Representative
Tincher of Kansas second vice chairman.
The retirement of Representative Fess recalls
the fact that when he assumed Craftsmanship of the
Republican congressional campaign the Democratic
party was in control of both branches of congress.
This was in the spring of 1918. The following No
vember the Republicans carried congress by a ma
jority of As. The election of a Republican congress
this xSear is necessary to prevent the return of the
control of all legislation by the "solid South" as
was the case before the Republicans secured control
of congress in 1918. Because the overwhelming ma
jority of its setrength comes from eight states in
the "Solid South" the Democratic party is essen
italy and inevitably a sectional party, narrow and
selfish in its views and antagonistic to the develop
mcnt Of the west and north. Because the Democrats
who come from the "Solid South" are the only Dem
ocrats who can always count upon election, the rep
resentatives from those southern states occupy
ranking positions upon practically every house com
mittee. This would mean, in event of the election
of a Democratic congress, that the control of every
important committee would be in the hands of eight
solid Democratic southern states.
Some idea of the preponderance of ~Soiid South,
influence in the Democratic party may be obtained
from the statement that of 1872 Democrats now in
the house of representatives ia come from below
Mason and Dixon's line. In event the Democratic
party should win at the next election II southern
states would control "a of the important committees
of the house as follows: Agriculture, Appropria-
lions, Banking and Currency, Claims, Education,
Foreign Affairs, Insular Affairs, Interstate and
Foreign Commerce, Pensions, Judiciary, Merchant
Marine, Labor, Military Affairs, Naval Affairs,
Patents. Postoffices,P Public Buildings, Civil Serv-
ice, Rivers and Harbors, Public Roads, Rules, War
Claims, Ways and Means.
For example, the Craftsmanship of the House
Committee on Education would go to Alabama.
which, with the exception of Louisiana, Mississippi
and South Carolina, is the most ~illiterate state in
the union. The Ways and Means Craftsmanship
would go to North Carolina, where it was under
the Wilson administration when its chairman
Claude Kitchin, announced he was going to so frame
the war revenue bill that the northern industries
and northern people would be compelled to pay
all the expenses of the war. Subsequent events
proved that Mr.. Kitchin made good his boast. The
Craftsmanship of the Committee on Pensions would
go to Georgia, from which state has emanated the
recent charge that Abraham Lincoln was respon.
sible for the Civil war.
In short, the entire legislative machinery of the
government would be, in event of a Democratic vic
tory in the congressional elections this year, seized
by eight southern states wholly out of sympathy
with the business, financial and Industrial inter
ests Of the north and west and in a great MANY
cases wholly ignorant of the needs of the United
States as n whole. The nation would then be sub.
jected to the same picayunish and sectional parti.
san attacks and harrassments that it had to endure
for eight years under the Wilson administration.