The Alaska daily empire., 1922-12-01
REFORM IN SENATE METHODS
 SUGGESTED.

Abandonment of the seniority rule by the Senate in choosing charmen Of committees is suggested in letter from Senator Mccormick Republican of Illi- nos to Senator Lodge. The Illinois Senator is chair man of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Com mittee and managed the campaigns of the party can didates for the Senate this His letter is creat- ing considerable interest in political circles and 1t IS believed suggestion will be adopted although it will encounter some strong opposition. Senator Mccormick suggested that the Republican steering committee the Senate be re-organized and that leg isative programs shall be determined by conference between the steering committees of both the House and Senate.
 His letter. which written before the election but net made public for several days after that time, said in part:
 I talk to you again upon the
 urgency of putting aside the rule under
 which the chairman of the Senate committees
 chosen because Of their seniority of
 service the committees and for other
 reason and to talk to you also about the
 constitution of a steering committee which
 may truly representative of the
 opinion of the Republican majority in the
 Senate and which in collaboration with the
 steering committee of the House may labor
 energeticaly and efficiently to enact
 legislation program.
 We owe the country the creation of
 such steering committee and the abolition < of the binding seniority rule. I speak z frankly to you because of the intimate
 consideration which you have always shown
 me, and because of your energetic and rep
 
 although in majority of the
 who have become chairmen through
 iOrity have been good chairman, there have
 been others who unftted for their posts
 by of extreme old age, failing
 health, because of grave differences of
 opinion with the majority of their Repub associates.
 The results in the recent election detracs nothing from the force of the suggestion. In fact they make it all the mere pointed Many major committees in both the Senate and House face shakeups in the Sixty-eghth Congress for many of their chairmen were not returned and of the ranking members were likewise retired to private life
 Without regard for the immediate exigencies of the situation and the effects of the change the senior ity rule has usefulness if it ever had any No one will attempt to gansay Senator McCormick's statement that able members have come into com mitee chairmanships under the practice. The con verse is also true, many able have kept out Of these important posts merely because they lacked the necessary service to qualify At all times the country needs the service of its able members Con- gress in the places where they do the greatest constructive work. The suggested change however is not without attendant defects It will entail more less logrolling by ambitious members and under selections by cancus it is not certain that the most able Senators will be chosen for the most important chairmanships Deliberate selection even under that handicap, is to be preferred the auto matic practice of selection by seniority in member ship The former, if abused, be corrected at the polls, while for the latter there no correction
 The significance in Senator McCormcks letter however does not lie in the change suggested much as it does in the indication the forces behind it | As change. it will hardly revoutonize legislative results IL may and probably will, bring about more intelligence in legislative matters if it is adoped But the real significance in it is il very probably forecasts struggle soon to be forthcoming for con trol Of the Republican organization. This view is supported by recent calls for conferences issued by tbcse regarded leaders of the left wing of inc Republican party.