The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-01-10
SENATE GAINS
BY PEPPER S
APPOINT MENT
Seen as Step Towards Restor-
ing Intellectual Standards
Sproul Submerges Self-In-
terest in Choice of Lawyer.
PERSONALITY OF MAN
by MARK SULLIVAN

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10-From the
national point of view and from the
non-partisan point of view, the out
standing fact about the selection of
George Wharton Pepper as the new
senator from Pennsylvania is that it
is a beginning toward restoring the
intellectual standing of the senate.
As such it is the first step in a nation
wide policy recently inaugurated by
the management of both parties.
1t would be difficult to find terms
too elevated to describe either Pepper
personally or the manner of his ap-
pointment.
For Governor Sproul il was one of
those acts which are not only pat
riotic in the impersonal sense, but
which also involve the submersion of
selfinterest Sproul was urged to re-
sign the governOrship in order to take
the office himself To refrain from
that was not so much, perhaps but
in naming pepper, Sproul also makes
his own advancement in the future i'm
possible. Peppers appointment is
only to serve out the unexpired term
of Penrose.
Sprou. Unselfish
In the Republican primaries next
May. and in the election next Nov
cmber, the Pennsylvania senatorship
will be filled. Sproul will not be able
10 get either of them, for he comes
from the same and of the state as
Pepper Sprouts self abnegation
coupled with the kind of man Pepper
is, is such an action as gives a sense
of exaltation and makes one feel the
country is headed in the right direc-
ton
PEPPER is, in every sense, a non
pclitical appointment II is unpol-
able to every one of the organized
interests that have dominated the
selection of Pennsylvania senators for
more than thirty years. 1t gives no
comfort now, and Pepper will give no
comfort in the future, to any interest
of any sort that can be described as
political.
Both in the size of the man he is
and in his previous public activities,
Pepper cannot be described in the ord
nary terms of political affiliation. He
was about the only lawyer of his
standing in Philadelphia who was
sympathetic to Roosevelt When Roos-
evelt began his preparedness agitation
in 1915, Pepper not only gave sympa-
Plattsburg and became a color SER
geant in the first provisional regiment.
although he was then within two years
of fifty.
Stands High as Lawyer
II is just such strikingly individual
acts. based on the deep conviction of
naturally retiring man, that have
always marked him as a public char
acter. He is constantly turning up as
The unpaid attorney for the weaker
side in some sort of litigation. AS a
lawyer he stands as high as Knox. or
even Hughes. or Root. 1t is only a
pTodigious capacity for work that has
enabled him to keep this position at
ne bar, and at the same time be the
hardest working, though often the
least conspicous. figure in wide var
iety of activities for the public good
He is probably the most active and
s. longest layman in the organization
oi the Episcopal church in America.
When the mater of our joining the
League of Nations came up, he was
deeply moved and became the vice
president of the counter league for the
preservation of American indepen-
dence. Recently he organized and be-
came the most energetic leader in the
Philadelphia movement for better pay
for school teachers.
Modesty Inherent.
al this sort of thing Mr.. Pepper
does without taking on the color of
hat is commonly meant as prom
nent character" Retiring modesty is
Cne OF his most pronounced personal
qualities. He was a professor of law
in the University of Pennsylvania for
ic
of the same university, and has hon
orary degrees conferred for eminence
in his profession from several univer-
sites. In the senate Pepper will stand
out like an oak, both for his intellec-
tual strength and for his indepen-
dencu or ordinary political considera-
lion.
Peppers selection as a beginning in
tIe strengthening of the senate leaves
two things 10 be done. One is TO abol
iSh the seniority rule which makes il
impossible for an able senator to give
the country the full benefit of his
alent until he has undergone a long
experience.
The second is to send more men like
Pepper to the senate. On both these
points the leadership of both political
parties is agreed. Right now the
Democrats are seeking earnestly to
have Ex-Vice President Marshall make
the race for the senate from Indiana
They are also seeking men of the
highest caliber to make the fight in
Massachusetts. New Jersey, Mary
lad, California and elsewhere 1t is
not too much TO say that the turning
point in the decadence of the senate
has been reached.
Copyright 1921 by the New York
Evening Post, lncD
HnnVER cnMEERRIMC