The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1922-06-15
BUSY
AS M'CUMBER
STAYS JOB
Second Bonus Bill is Drifting
Into Situation Where it Can
Do North Dakota Senator
Little Good.
TARIFF MEASURE HELPS
BY MARK SULLIVAN

are breaking badly for Senator Nc
Cumber, of North Dakota. The pri-
mary which determines his fate oc-
ours one week from next Tuesday
McCumber has relied upon the same
method of campaigning as Senator
New, of Indiana. He has stayed here
in Washington, working hard at his
duties as chairman of the finance
committee, while his opponent is busy
on the ground
One of the things which McCumber |
undoubtedly must have believed would !
| 1t was McCumber who first intro
| duced that proposal a little over a !
year ago and who pressed it to such !
a point that the other Republican
leaders who were opposed to it be-
came a little panicky. In order to
head off this old McCumber soldier
bonus bill at that time, the other lead
ers appealed to Secretary Mellon and
got from him a letter in which he
said that the treasury was not in a po-
sition to pay the money.
This letter, however, proved insuffi-
cient, and within a few days the SEN
ate leaders were obliged to ask Pres
ident Harding to come to the senate
in person. He did SO, and delivered
public address, in which he said
that the state of the treasury would
not permit of soldiers bonus bill at
L. %I11t
killed McCumber's first bonus bill II
months ago. That it was deeply dis
appointing to McCumber was appar-
ent at the time.
Hard Fight Ahead
Now, within two weeks of his pri-
mary election, McCumber's second bo-
nus bill is drifting into a situation
where it must be equally disappoint-
ing to him and cannot do him much
good in the primary 1t has been
made known that President Harding
does not wish the bonus bill to be
considered ahead of the tariff bill.
That means, of course, that it cannot
be passed in time to aid McCumber
in the North Dakota primary.
Even If President Harding had not
taken this position the bonus bill
could not possibly be passed during
the next 10 days. The number of
senators who are opposed to it has In
creased constantly.
: Most of the senators who are op-
| posed to the bill want to debate it
thoroughly. The aggregate of the
} time they will take would alone be
enough to make it safe to predict not
, only that the soldiers bonus bill will
: not pass before the North Dakota pri-
! ~ ha1 hJlf oil iG
: not likely to pass during the present
2 session of Congress.
But the worst blow to McCumber's
bonus BILL as an aid to his renomina-
: tion in North Dakota, comes from his
: own colleague in the senate. Senator
:. Ladd has cried down the McCumber
+. bonus bill in derogatory terms and has
: proposed an alternative measure of an
: altogether different nature. 1t may
! reasonably be assumed that in Ladd' S
2 almost contemptuous decrying of the
: bonus bill fathered by his colleague
from his own state, there is a certain
s amount of local North Dakota politics.
$ Straight Fight
: McCumber's fight in North Dakota
+ is a clear one, in which he, as a con-
|, servative Republican, is opposed by a
|, representative of the Non-Partisan
L league. This opponent is Ex-Governor
e Lynn Frazier Frazier was once made
o governor of the state by the same
:. forces that are now backing him for
o the senate. 1t is a straight fight be
l. tween a conservative Republican and
+ a radical one.
/ The success of Frazier against Nc
Cumber in North Dakota would be
/ more damaging to the conservative
II wings of the Republican party than
u was the triumph of Brookhart in Iowa
2 Frazier, in a political sense, is much
o the same kind of man as Brookhart
only more so. Frazier represents the
thorough-going radical though, which
believes in extreme forms of state con
troll and state ownership of industry
even including mills and elevators.
II One aspect of Senator McCumber's
j recent activity in the senate viii
probably help him. The tariff bill
which he fathers, and which at the
,e moment is very much to the front il
l. public interest, is satisfactory to t5t
% farming committees of North Dakota
,e However much the McCumber tariff
70 bill may be disliked by the consum
= ing communities of the eastern cities
ls it was framed to meet the favor o
" just such a farming state as Nortl
20 Dakota
W Also, the mere fact that McCumbe
has SO important a position as chair
"a man of the finance committee viii
- bring him the favor of good deal O
a. local state pride. It is a most un
"A usual thing and a sign of the trend O
- American politics that this most i'm
~ portant position In the senate shoul
nf - be held by man from west of tn
Mississippi river.
IN Copyright, 1922 by The New Yor
Evening Post, Inc.)
no