Evening star., 1925-03-10
Test of Party Loyalty.


and party loyalty? The question,
raised in the Senate when the Re-
publican majority yesterday disci-
plined four insurgents-La Toilette
and his followers in the recent cam
paign-was settled at least tempo
rarily so far as those Senators are
concerned. They were held to be no
longer Republicans and no longer
loyal to the party because they had
failed to support the party platform
and the party candidate for President
during the last campaign. They were
denied committee assignments as Re-
publicans. Those who believe in party
regularity will applaud this action.
Vigorous protest was voiced by Re-
publican Senators from the West
What would they have said had Sen
ators La Toilette, Brookhart, Ladd
and Frazier voted for John W. Davis
instead Of La Toilette and Wheeler
the latter. by the way, Democrat?
Yet a vote for La Toilette, theoreti-
cally, was just as much blow at the
Republican nominee as a vote for
Davis, the Democratic nominee.
Had the campaign been military in.
stead Of political, and the leaders in
question been found outside the ranks
Of the Republican army, what then
would have been said of their loyalty?
On the other side of the question
rests the argument that these Sen
ators were elected as Republicans by
those calling themselves Republicans
in their particular States. Is there
more reason for denying the Repub-
licanism of the Senators than Of the
people who elected them? It is true
that Of the three States represented
by the four Senators, two voted for
the Republican national ticket in the
last election and one did not. 1t is
also true that in one of the States,
Iowa, the electoral vote was cast for
Coolidge even while the voters were
electing Brookhart.
At the bottom Of the contest in the
Senate over the disciplining Of the
four insurgents lies the fact that the
Republican party has had for years a
progressive wing and a conservative
wing. The progressives in the party
fear that an attempt is being made to
stifie them, to weed them out. It rep
resents a contest in the party itself
between these two wings, q contest
that in 1912 split the party asunder
and gave the progressive wing the
lions share Of electoral votes-though
at that time the progressives appar-
emily left the old party under the
leadership Of Roosevelt. No one
thought Of chastising the progressives
then in the Senator if they did
they did not advocate such a course
openly. But in 1924 the tables were
turned, and the conservative wing Of
the party was overwhelmingly in the
ascendency and continues to be today.
The time has come, in the opinion Of
the regular party leaders, to stamp
out insurgency, and they are under
taking It.
How wise, or unwise, this course
may be time will tell. 1t is noticeable
that the Democrats made no such ef-
fort to discipline Senator Wheeler, La
Follette's running mate in the cam
paign. Apparently they believe in a
more tolerant attitude. Had they been
as overwhelmingly triumphant as the
Republican organization at the last
election their attitude might have
been different.
Senator Borah Of Idaho, himself
from the progressive West, urged
tolerance in the hour Of victory.
Three Of the Senators disciplined con-
tinue to claim to be Republicans-bet.
ter Republicans, they say, than some
Of those who lashed at them. They
have no present intention, they say,
of joining with Senator La Toilette,
the fourth insurgent, in the formation
Of new liberal party. Had they done
80, what voice would have been raised
in protest against their elimination
from the Republican party? The case
against them would have been com.
plete.
The Republican majority in the Sen.