Evening star., 1924-10-17
c. 0. P. CONDUCTING
HARD SENATEF|GHT
Seek to Make Upper Chamber
"Safe for Coolidge Sit
uation Is Complex.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.


Behind the scenes of the fight for
the presidency. which the Repub
licans think they have won, another
fight is going on. of hardly less
gravity. That contest RACES around
the desire to make the United States
Senate safe for Coolidge" 1t aims
in detail at securing a regular and
reliable Republican bloc Of 40
votes, in order that nominal Repub-
licans," constituting the La Toilette
bloc" cannot frustrate Coolidge poll
cies. To that strategy Republican SEN
atorial campaign managers through
out the country now are bending
every energy. They are indulging in
no air castles. Some of them frankly
fear that the Senate in the Sixty
ninth Congress may be as intractable,
from an administration standpoint, as
its ungovernable predecessor.
Count shows Ten.fty.
a simple proposition in senatorial
arithmetic shows the tensity of the
situation. In the present (and eXpir-
ing) Congress the Republicans have
only paper ma jority. Including the
seats from Rhode Island and Con-
necticut recently vacated by the pass
ing of Senator'S Colt and Brandegee,
the Republicans have 81 votes: the
Democrats, 43, and the Farmer
Laborites, .. But Messrs La Toilette.
Norris. Brookhart. Ladd and Frazier
are classified Al only nominal Re
publicans." Sometimes q. O. L.
leaders give them stronger names,
like ''masqueraders' and "renegades "
The quintette brings down the regu-
lar Republican strength in the Sem
ate to 46, or three be.ow a majority
There are three other nominal Re
publicans who are considered semi
La Toilette boosters. or at least
ready to become such on occasion.
These are johnson of California
Norbeck of South Dakota and
Howell of Nebraska. Thus the Coo
lidse high command contemplates
the possibility of an nti-administra-
tion bloc, from emergency to emerg-
ency. of eight votes.
Need Three Seats.
What, therefore, is required to make
the Senate safe for Coolidge" is the
capture by the Republicans of at
least three existing Democratic sena
torial seats. They require. as we'll
TO hold all of the existing Republican
seats. If these two objectives are
accomplished, the Coolidge bloc
would be independent of the La Fol
lette bloc. provided Senator's Hiram
johnson. Howell and Norbeck did NOT
join La Toilette. Counting these
three Senator's as "reliable" and moi
"nominaT Republicans. the total
would be As. The addition of three
new Republicans Senators would then
assure the administration regular
control of the Senate by margin of
exactly one vote. Some Republicans
think Senator Couzens of Michigan is
not a dependable fixture on the reg
ular" reservation. If he strayed from
it with any frequency, the Coolidge
bloc would find itself in a preca rious
position.
Senator George II. Moses of New
Hampshire, who is chairman of the
Republican senatorial committee. is
assigned the task of manufacturing
Coolidge Senate. The committee
has it's eye on some promising pros
poets to that end. 1t expects to de-
feat Senator David l. Walsh. Demo-
crat, in Massac chusetts, and elect
SpeakeU Frederick II. Gillett, Re
publican, in his stead. The Republi-
cans hope to smash Senator A. Ows-
ley Stanley, Democrat, in kentucky.
and supplant him with Fred NJ. Sack
ett, Republican, a prominent Louis
vile businessman. Senator Stanley is
faced by bitter opposition in his own
party, headed by the powerful Louis
vile Courier-Journel contingent. and
by the combined church. prohibition
and anti-race track elements.
In Colorado. New Mexico. Oklaho-
ma and Montana :he Republicans are
counting on winning Democratic
seats. 1t is the short-term Colorado
seat, now occupied by Alva B. Adams,
that it Is hoped to take away.
Rice w. Means, district attorney for
Denver, is the Republican candidate.
Senator Lawrence c. Phipps, Re-
publican, who seeks reelection for the
long term, is having a stiff fight. and
Colorado may give the G. o. Il. only
an even split. There, as all over the
West. the shadows OF La Toilette and
the klan are cast to such an extent
that anything approximating reli-
able calculations is impossible at this
hour.
Tennessee, although it is one of the
CONTINUED on Pages S. Column 81