Evening star., 1925-02-14
FIGHT ON WARREN
AIMED AT COOLIDGE
Senators Angered at Series
Of Appointments Without
/. Party o. K.
ny FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

ny FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
Causes far more bitter than sugar lie
at the root Of Charles Beecher Warrens
confirmation dih1culties In the Senate. 1t
Is not so much Mr.. Warren himself that
is' objected to. IT is the circumeta noes
under which President Coolidge NOM
mated him for the attorney generalship
that have really held up the Warren
confirmation. The Michigan lawyers
legal affiliations with the sugar interests
are merely the formal peg on which the
fight against him has been hung The
nall on which the Senate is actually
hammering is the resentment of Presi-
dent Cooiidge's appointment policy, with
It's total disregard Of organization sus-
capabilities. senatorial traditions and
the other vested rights Of patronage die
tators.
The foreign relations committee of the
Senate. in which the irreconcilables
nave their stronghold. is the source from
which most of the hostility to the Cool
idge appointment program springs. The
lrreconcilables ire was first aroused by
the nomination of Ambassador Frank B.
Ne logg to succeed Charles Evans
hughes as Secretary Of State.
There Is no constitutional require
ment that the President shall seek the
advice and consent" Of the Senate
about the selection of his foreign
minister But the foreign relations
committee held II to be SO obvious
and logical a matter for them to be
consulted upon that they frankly and
bitterly objected to being ignored.
There was, of course, the addition of
insult to injury in the nomination of
man long suspected in the isolation
ist camp of having an international
mind
lrreconcilables AnKered
1T would have been difficult for
President Coolidge to appoint any
body more Objectionable to the ire
concilables than Kellogg. mild res
ervationist" on the league, unless he
had reappointed Mr.. Hughes to sue
ceed himself. The Kellogg nomina-
tion took the foreign relations COM
mittee utterly by surprise. Also. II
took their breath away. When they
recovered their breath, they breathed
damnation on the appointment and all
the circumstances in which IT was
made. If Mr.. Kellogg falls to satisfy
:he foreign relations committee on
the Paris reparations agreement, 1t
is strongly within the realm of proba-
bilities that he, like Mr.. Warren. may
confront confirmation difficulties.
The Kellogg Secretaryship of State
affair was sooner announced than
Mr.. Coolidge handed the foreign rela-
tions committee another unexpected
jolt by naming Ambassador Alanson
b. Houghton to succeed Kellogg in
London. About the very moment
Houghton's appointment was made
public, Senator Borah, chairman OF
the committee, was on the way to the
White House to urge the nomination
Of Senator Medill Mccormick. a men,
ber of the foreign relations body, for
the London ambassadorship. No OBJ
jections to Mr.. Houghton have come
to the surface in the Senate. He is
regarded as having made a creditable
record at Berlin and as deserving pro-
motion for merit. But, as in the case
Of the Kellogg appointment, the for
eign relations committeeman are irked
by the Presidents insistence upon
overlooking them. The Court OF st.
James is the pivot American ambassa-
dorial post in Europe. Borah and his
colleagues would like to have at least
their little finger in the pie in the fll-
ing OF the job.
Patronage at IssMe.
When all these things were hap
pening-Hughes resignins, Kellogg
coming 10 the State Department and
Houghton transferring from Berlin
to London-the Paris reparations
agreement bounded into the open.
That was the last straw for the
irreconcilable group in the foreign
relations committee. They met,
mused and boiled over. Their indig-
nation Is faithfully reported to this
writer by one Of them to have been
unparalleled" Such unity" of out
ragged spirit Is said never before TO
have been witnessed, even in the
most hectic league days. Led by the
embattled and embittered irreconcil-
abies, the foreign relations commit
tee voted unanimously to demand the
full Paris facts from the administra-
ton. Even now, with those facts sub
mitted by Secretary Hughes, the COM
mittee Is far from reassured and ap-
peased. They are going to walt and
see," in the language made famous
in British politics by Herbert. Earl
OF Oxford and AsQuith.- They are
waiting for Mr.. Kellogg and intend
seeing him as soon as he gets here
later in February.
To get back to the Warren con-
firmation, there is. of course, the an
cient question of Senatorial courtesy
directly involved. Under the leader
ship of Senator Couzens, Republican,
Of Michigan, the entire G. o. P. dele
CATION of that State not only appealed
to Mr.. Coolidge not to nominate
Warren for the Attorney Generalship,
but to appoint somebody else, that Is,
Gov Groesbeck Of Michigan. The
President paid no heed to Senator
Csuzens. Couzens supported Coolidge
in 1924, but he is not regarded any
more securely hitched to the regu-
lar organization on Capitol Hill than,
for instance, brother Republicans like
Borah, Hiram Johnson, George Nor
ris, ct al, are. At any rate, the whole
business of whether the party and
the Senate and patronage traditions
generally may or may not be houted
at White House will is now out in
front. The fate of Warren and kef-
logg will show how that business is
likely to be transacted during the
Coolidge administration.
Copyright 1921