The Colorado statesman., 1923-08-25

Washington in the summertime is
fond of dealing In futures. The cap
ltal is only really the capital when
congress IS In session and the Pres
ldent Is in the White House. 1t is sort
of half capital when either Is away.
AS soon as congress adjourns WASH
ington folk deal in terms of the next
fall and winter.
Even the society editors of the news
papers get into the habit of future
dealing. Society is not altogether
lively here In the hot months and SO
the female portrayers Of the folbles,
fashions and doings of society write
almost daily of the glories of the
things that are to come. 1t makes a
sort of excuse for the absence of ac-
tual news from columns ordinarily
devoted to the immediate activities of
the socially elect.
Officials here seem to feel that the
future, or at least the next winter part
of the future, is to bring with 1t some
picturesque doings in congress. pro-
vided some of the statesmen and near
statesmen who just now are telling
what they intend to do shall attempt
to do what they promise to attempt.
One senator who has not been long in
congress asserted somewhat vehement
ly recently that next winter he VIII
bend his efforts to an attempt to see
to it that no "stand-patters" have DOM
innnt places on the chief committees
of the senate.
He Has Some Job Ahead.
Now, of course, by "stand-patters"
this somewhat new senator means the
conservative members of the upper
house, both Democratic and Repub-
lican. Just how he is going to accom-
pllsh his purpose of keeping the con-
servative element in the senate off the
big committees he does not attempt TO
say. Let one who has been in WASH
ington many years and who has
watched more or less closely the pro-
ceedings in both houses say there Is
some job ahead of the gentleman who
is to attempt TO deny to the represent
atives of the conservative element in
the communities the right to sit in any
committee however big.
Majorities rule in the senate as they
rule elsewhere in the United States.
If the senate should be composed of
majority of members who do not want
this or that man on certain commit
tee, this man or that man would not
go on a certain committee, but the
conservatives of the senate even today
are in the majority, and more than
this. the old-time senators, whether
conservatives. liberals or radicals, are
great sticklers for precedents. A man
who has seniority right for promotion
on a committee will get 1t and no thun-
derings or fire breathings from q SEN
ator yet wearing pin feathers will
avail to prevent.
1t is bromide, but nevertheless
there is nothing new under the sun. In
the warm summertime in the presence
of their enthusiastic constituents new
senators before this time have de-
were going to do when they arrived
in the halls of congress. Rarely have
they done what they said they would
do.
Some UnfulfiIled Threats.
One senator prior to entering upon
his office promised that he would walk
up the center aisle of the senate and
defy the vice president to refuse to
recognize him when he was demand
ing his right ito speak in behalf of
the down-trodden people of his con-
stituency."
This senator was going Ito tweak
their noses" and do worse things TO
the members of the senate majority
which would attempt to still his voice
in the great debates for human rights.
1t was great stuff, but 1t never came
off.
Yet another senator newly elected
was going I'd, change the entire proce-
dure of the upper house. No mossbacks
could daunt or flaunt him. His COM
ing was watched with nothing sharper
than curiosity. He came, he saw, but
he did not conquer. He learned few
things about senatorial procedure from
the colleague of his own party before
he had been in his seat twenty-four
hours. He subsidized and kept that ST.
lence for at least a year, which in his
case at least he found to be golden.
They are all going to do it, but none
of them ever has done 1t.
There are good many so-called
radicals in the United States senate
today and several new ones among
them who perhaps would like to turn
the senate into a bear garden, hut
they won't do 1t. The radicals get
as far as senate proce-
dure is concerned, and conservative they
remain. The old-time radicals sit on
the new radicals just as hard as the
sit On them.
Radical legislation will get its con-
sideration, but it won't get it any
quicker because some new senator
nts 11nnn his feet and wells