The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-01-17
of proposed Legislation ever presented
to an American congress.
Courtesy Strained.


to an American congress.
Senatorial Courtesy Strained.
AS the old saying which now has
passed into the class of bromides has
it, the exception proves the rule.
Therefore it is likely, because United
States senators once in a while forges
themselves and become discourteous,
the lapses from decorum prove that
senatorial courtesy" Is still the or
der of the day.
The United States senate unoues-
tionably likes to think of itself as it
was called by a great man. the great
est deliberative body on earth,' and
probably it also likes to think of itself
as observing always the rules of that
senatorial courtesy" which has passed
into the realm of proverb.
When the senate divides itself into
factions irrespective of party. the
strain on the amenities is great. Real
ly the wonder Is there are not more
breaches of the rules of polite conduct
and polite conversation in the senate
than there are.
The times of today are times that
try senatorial souls and incidentally
senatorial tempers. The great ones
from this state, that state and yonder
state are compelled day by day 70
keep the curb OIL their inelinations 10
break out. They break out now and
then, but that which looks tragic for
a while generally eventually takes on
a comedy aspect with the happy en1-
ing which is characteristic of COM
edies.
Smoot and Simmons Clash.
1t was only a day or two ago that
the urbane Senator Smoot of Utah
and the equally urbane Senator Sim
mons of South Carolina had an inter-
change which was an approach to that
progression of interchange of which
Shakespeare wrote, the passing from
the retort courteous to the lie direct.
Senator Smoot and Senator Simmons
have been exceedingly friendly one 70
the other, and they still are exceeding
ly frien dly n to the other. The in
terchange and the heat which accom-
panied it passed within the compass
of a second or two of the precious time
of senate debate and now no one would
believe for an instant that either had
struck a flint TO produce the spark Of
i%nsinuation or the spark of resentment.
In the last session Cor was ii the ses-
sion before the last?) the mild but al
ways determined Senator McCumber
came close to having something more
substantial than a mere vocal encoun-
ter with a gentleman on the other side
of the chamber who belongs to a po-
litical party which is o that of the
gentleman from North Dakota. Hos
tilities were prevented and the word
is today that the two who seemed 70
be mixing war paint on that day of IN
hallowed memory are now as compan-
ionably inclined as any Darby and
Joan.
One has to go a long way back into
the past to run on to authentic Incl
dents of actual physical encounters in
the senate of the United States. Two
senators from South Carolina in the
Ndiiy ddNS VI Tic ItOOSCfClt dIlD liiollu
ton exchanged super-heated words witt
one another and then exchanged a blow
or two. There was a terrific ado about
this happening and it left its marx
on the senate's of propriety Ions
after any physical marks, the direct
result of the encounter, had disap
peared.
Mix-Up That Shocked the Senate.
Once when the senate was in execu.
tive session, history has it that a Ger
tain senator from Indiana who was
and is in no wise a physical giant, nj
though his intellectual equipmen;
would suggest the giant, had what we
vulgar-minded writers like to call a
mix-up with a Texas senator of the
day who was a physical giant and also
like his antagonist a man of more thar
ordinary qualities Intellectually.
1t took the senate a year or two to
recover from the shock of this encoun
ter. Its dignity of course had been
outraged, but the humorous part of il
was that probably no one would have
known about the ruction if the sena-
tors themselves had kept still, for the
thing happened when the doors were
closed and with no one present except
the always reticent presiding officer
and the senators of the various SOW
ereign states themselves.
Once on a time in the corridor of
the United States senate a Texas SEN
ator and n South Carolina newspaper
man had an interchange of something
harder than words. 1t is said that an
umbrella figured in the proceedings.
The story of this encounter brings sad
memory to newspaper men because
their colleague. who on that day was
acting within his rights as a man. nov,
lies in France where he was killed by
a German bullet while valiantly lead
ing his company into action.
The senate's personal rows are few
and far between. Their infrequent
happening gives them a prominence
that they would lack if they were the
expected order of daily debate.
To Mark Landind Place of Columbus.