Evening star., 1924-11-29

Senator Borah saw President Cool
tdge couple Of hours after the Re
publican senatorial caucus read La
Toilette. Brookhart. Ladd and Fra
zier out Of the q. o. L. 1t would
make prime reading to know exactly
what the most Independent spirit in
Congress said to the titu.ar leader Of
the Republican organization about
the biggest bombshell sprung in
Washington for many a moon. Boral
has never attended a caucus since he
came 20 the Senate Il years ago
He doesn't believe In caucuses.
Neither does he believe IN demoting a
man for declining to swallow party
platforms, hook, line and sinker.
Borah's own political digestion has
always rebelled against that kind of
diet. On the present occasion, he is
known 70 espouse the theory that a
far moro feasible plan would have
been to adopt legislative program,
put 1t up to the '"renegades" to ac-
cept It, and, If they refused. let them
automatically read themselves out of
the party.
Western progressives Of tile Borah
type fear that the Republican high
command forgets party lines have
lost their old time meaning beyond
the Mississippi. They hold that to be
true, despite the recent Coolidge
landslide throughout the Western
country. The revolt of the La Fol-
lettes, Brookharts, 1Iadds, Fraziers.
Norrises, Borahs, Howells ct al has
not. It is argued, been SO much an
uprising against the Republican or
any other party as It has been q
demonstration by and on behalf Of
the great West. That section for a
generation has been struggling to
obtain equality" in Washington with
the long-intrenched East. Whether
Western radicals OF Republican hue.
ed from the party councils on Capitol
Hill, will be bereft of any real
power through such ostracism re-
mains 70 be seen. They will still be
on important committees, though
seniority may be denied them. They
will have a vote apiece, as before.
For all practical purposes. their
Samsonian strength will not be
shorn.
A vista Of interminable possibilities
is, Of course, opened up by the history
made by the G.. o. p. caucus on No.
yember %, 1924. What will happen,
for instance, IL Senator Borah. new
chairman Of the foreign relations
committee, puts his broad Idaho back
up and says he will have no truck or
trafic with President Coolidge's
World Court scheme? What VIII hap
pen II Borah INDUCES not only in
passive resistance to the administra-
tion's major foreign policy, but goes
out cunning for it, in his committee
and on the floor of the Senate. What
will happen If the Demosthenes OF
Congress conducts a sort of La Fol-
lette campaign against the World
Court on the rostrums OF the Nation?
Will Senators Curtis and Watson, the
new G.. o. P. leaders in the Senate,
read Borah out of the party? That
would indeed be a spectacle which
would cause the gods. perhaps. not
to weep, but to rub their eyes.
n y
Calvin Coolidge must have given
his blessing to the communication
procedure which leaves the rene
gade" four outside the breastw orks
from which the star-spangled banner
Of regularity now flies. Ostensibly
and oficially the President keeps his
hands Off Of matters for which the
legislative branch OF the party is
singly responsible. But a schoolboy
in politics knows that action fraught
with such significance would not have
been taken without at least tacit
White House approval. From the
moment Coo!tdge's sweep Of the aGri-