The Washington times., 1923-12-19
LONGWORTHHAS
COMPOUNDED
ENEMIES
House Leaders Strategy Gen.
orally commended-sen-
ate War Continues.
Continued from First Page)

| Continued from First Page)
tor Jones of Washington. Republi'
can and conservative, and Sena'
tor Gooding of idaho, Republican
and ultra conservative, began vot-
ing against .Cummins last Saturday
for the Interstate Commerce Com
mittee craftsmanship. Fasteners
who wish to know their country
will presently have to realize that
| the overwhelming mass of the pop.
ulation of the Northwest has been
propagandized into believing that the
| Cummins-Esch transportation law,
now on the statute books, is one
Of the chief roots Of the Northwest
woes, when the regular Republican
| leadership Of the Senate gave the
members of the Senatorial "pro-
gressive group" a chance to vote
against Cumnins day after day, 1t
gave them daily a chance to lay up
big political capital for themselves
throughout the Northwestern
| States.
It also drove them in the direc-
ton Of allying themselves with the
Senatorial Democrats.
In the House, on the other hand.
the conciliatory policy of Long
worth toward the progressive
group has driven a deep and a
growing wedge in between the
progressive group" and the Demo.
Gratis.
Numerous Democrats in addition
to Henry 7. Rainey Of Illinois are
now cursing out the Republican
"progresSives" for accepting Mick"
Longworth's slate Of committees in
return for a place for their leader.
Mr.. Nelson of Illinois on the rules
committee.
Meanwhile the granting Of that
place to Mr.. Nelson does not In
the slightest degree weaken Mr..
Longworth's position on the floor
Of the House when the House is
in full session. On the contrary, If
it does anything to 1t. 1t adds to it
a chance toward being sometimes
strengthened.
The neatness Of Mr.. Longworth's
strategy, which now is beginning to
get the warm applause of the local
professional fans Of inside politics,
rests on the following considera.
| tons:
Leader Of Minority.
Longworth has become the regu-
lar Republican floor leader at a
time when the Democrats and the
progressive Republicans together
can always outvote him on the floor
Of the House.
He is a floor leader who is in a
minority from the start whenever
HI
together.
His problem is to reduce the
number Of occasions when they will
want to get together.
If he had filled the Republican
side of the rules committee with
eight stalwart regular Republicans
and IL by playing with the Demo-
Gratis he had got enough votes on
the floor of the House to adopt such
a slate, the result would have been
as follows:
Whenever that committee reported
a rule to the house to expedite q
regular Republican bill. the injured
and revengeful "progressives" would
have joined the Democrats in vot.
| ing down the rule.
The result would have been a
| virtual certainty that there would
l
| lation.
Longworth avoided the trap. He
let the Democrats como to him and
make their offer. He waited and
| let them come and waited some
| more. Then the "progressives,
| hearing that some Democrats were
| offering to abandon them. came in
and offered to abandon the Demo-
Gratis. WhereupOn Longworth closed
with the "progressives" and gave
| them a place on the Rules Com.
| mittee and went out on the floor
of the House and downed the
Democrats with a united RepubIi-
can conservative and progressive"
vote which carried with it the pos
sibility of repeated similar per.
formances in the future.
The reason for that possible pros
pect is this:
Every rule now which comes to
the house from the Rules Commit
tee will have been seen by Mr..
Nelson. Things seen and under
stood are never so bad as things
unseen and therefore suspected and
misunderstood. The rules from
now on in the House will have
had a preliminary progressive"
scrutiny and they will accordingly
AAS~'C Oh dDIy DeLLeT CHdHC0
or getting the votes of "progres.
sives" on the floor.
Longworth has gone a long way
toward dispelling the darkness and
suspicion in which. the Rules Com.
mittee was involved and toward let
ting into 1t a little light and publicity
and a little possible occasional Re
publican cooperation by all Repub-
lican factions. LongWorth had onty
streak of a chance to achieve any
Republican success on the floor of
the House, but II is s, en- now thlt
he patiently waited for that streak
and that when Il came he shrewdly
saw it and boldly grabbed It,
Bad as his situation was and Is
in the House he has made 1t better
than 1t was before, while his elders
in craftsmanship in the Senate have
made theirs worse. People, accord
ingly. are saying more and more
that the best and deepest political
player so far in this session is the
lightmannered and light-humored
florid -faced and fIippant-toDgued
Nicholas Longworth.
Copyright, 1923, Washington Press
SerVice.)
K -.