Evening star., 1926-03-12
TARIFF SPLITS PARTY.
Definition Of Progressive Republi.
cans" in Senate Weakens President.
BY. DAVID LAWRENCE.

The action of the Senate i'm order
ing an Investigation of the Tariff
commission demonstrates two things:
FIRST, that Mr.. Coolidge has a tenuous
hold on the upper house of Congress
and that coalition of Democrats and
insurgent Republicans can thwart his
VIII, and. second, that Congress is
more or less repentant that 1t ever
delegated to the Chief Executive any
discretionary power with reference to
the operations of the tariff law.
The debate over the insertion of
the words Progressive Republican,"
in a Senate resolution is significant
Of troubles ahead for Mr.. Coolidge
The Democrats Joined with the insur.
gents in definitely using the classifi-
cation Progressive Republican" 20
apply 10 that group which is infor-
mally led by men like Sena tors Borah
Of Idaho and Norris of Nebras ska, for
the progressive" group is not organ
lied as such. and until the resolution
was adopted on Thursday there had
been no attempt to designate the diff
ferent types of Republicans.
Under the new resolution, the Vice
President is supposed to select the in
vestigating committee and must choose
at least one progressive Republican" "
the task of deciding who is progres.
sive. 1t places the issue squarely be-
fore him.
Implicit Meaning Used.
There are several Senators who are
not necessarily followers Of either Mr..
Norris or Mr.. Borah who consider
themselves "progresives," but 1t is a
question whether they would care 10
have themselves separated in any
classification from the regular Repub-
licans" which term has come to mean
supporters Of the administration. 1t
is therefore not the explicit, but the
implicit. meaning of the word pro
gressive" which Is employed
Some of the progressive Repub.
licans" really consider themselves in
dependent Republicans" In the sense
TO follow the administration on most
questions. Typical Of this group is
Senator Couzens Of Michigan, who is
listed as a progressive by members of
the Norris group, but who is really
and independent Republican. He an
nounced in his campaign a year ago
that he would support MIR. Coolidge
whenever he believed the President
was right and would oppose him when
ever he thought he was wrong on
public questions.
Couzens Supported Move.
It is significant that when Senator
Bingham Of Connecticut moved to
strike out the words progressive Re
publican" from the resolution, two
Senators-Mr. Couzens Of Michiban
and Mr.. McNfaster Of South Dakota
-x..fp. 80.
The Republicans who supported
the classificati tion were Borah of
Idaho. Brookhart of Iowa. Frazier
and Nye of North Dakota. Howell
and Norris of Nebras ska, Johnson of
California. Jones of Washington. Nc
Nary of Oregon and La Toilette of
Wisconsin. who. together with Ship
stead Of Minnesota (Farmer- La bor)
made n total of II.
Twenty eight Democrats followed
the customary policy in politics of
adding to the discomfort of an Oppo-
site party so that the total vote was
80 to support the language pro
gressive Republican" as against 29
Republicans who did not want any
classification made.
May Relieve President.
The investigation of the Tariff
Commission was really not desired
nv the administration, but now that
IT has come, Mr.. Coolidge proba bly
will view it as not an unmixed evil
He has had his troubles with per-
sonnel He has tried to reorganize
the commission. He has had the
embarrassment of trying to. decide
which tions of the com
mission should he approved and
which should be ignored.
On the whole, Congress appointed 4
tariff commission, which for partisan
and academic tariff reasons, has beer
unable to function, but in effect .th'
whole responsibility was ultimate