The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-23
SENATOR'S DEATH MAY MAKE BRYAN
 PRESIDENT.
If Election Goes Into Sen ate Dawes Is Sure
 To Lose
By CHARLES MICHELSON.

WASHINGTON, Aug. ZZ. - The death of Senator Colt of Rhode Island, may make Governor Bryan of Nebraska, president.
 The laws of Rhode Island direct that a special election be called to chose a successor to Senator Colt for the unexpired term, and it is assumed Governor Film will call for the same day as the regular November election, so the man chosen will be the one en- titled to sit in the Senate that must elect the viee-president should there be no choice in the electoral college.
 Senator Colt was a candidate to succeed himself With him there were fifty-one republicans in the Senate Should his successor be a democrat, which is probable, for Rhode Island elected a democratic gov ernor in 1922, the Senate will consist of fifty republicans, forty-four democrats and two farmer-laborites.
 Gives Majority To Bryan.
 The assumption has been that in the event of no presidential choice be- ing made in the electoral college or the House that two titular republicans, I,add and Frazier, with La Toilette and the two farmer-lab ormen. Shipstead and Magnus Johnson, would vote for Governor Bryan rather than for Gen eral Dawes.
 The Senate under the Constitution must choose the vice-president from the two candidates receiving the largest number of votes in the electoral col lege.
 Before Senator Colts death this di- vision would have made the Senate SI Colts place, it would give 49 for Bryan and 47 for General Dawes.
 That is only one of the possible con- sequences of the change.
 Another is that the republicans see Hiram Johnson compelled to remain in the Coolidge fold in California. He has been silent as to his intentions, but some of his campaign managers have come out for La Toilette. and there has been considerable perturba- tion lest Senator Johnson himself take that tack and carry with him enough of his followers to give the state to the democrats.
 Senator Johnson, however, is due to succeed Senator Colt by right of seniority as chairman of the commit tee on immigration, most important post from his point ot -iew because of the Japanese question in his state. Senator Sterling of South Dakota, was next in line, but he lost out in the primaries, so the Californian naturally rises to the top.
 Should Johnson bolt his party he would forfeit his right to preference, and that he is not expected to do
 Senator La Toilette himself is due to be disciplined by the loss of his precedence. Only Senator Shoot stands between him and the chair manship of the finance committee, and by the strict rule of seniority he ought to be chairman of the interstate com merce committe now. Rather than let him have it, the republicans permitted the election of Senator Smith of South Carolina, democrat, to that position.
 Colt Opposed Exclusion Clause Of course, should La Toilette get enough electoral votes to throw the determination of the presidency into Congress, he can make his own terms
 Senator Colt was one of the few sch ators who stood by the President against special exclusion provision in the immigration bill against the ad- mission of Japanese. The President would like to see that section repealed and the Japanese put on the same quota basis as other people, which, as he pointed out in his various expres- sions on the subject, would only admit about 100 year. Hiram Johnson, of course, was stern for total exclusion, so his succession to the committee chair manship would mean that any idea re- v1ving the Japanese issue would be vain.