Evening star., 1929-12-13
A Day of Miracles.

The Senate, which believes in investi-
cations as firmly as the old Romans
believed in Apollo, Minerva and the rest
of the ancient gods, has finally found
c11nething which it does not care TO
Investigate. 1t does not care to IN
vestigate the election of Gov. John 5.
Fisher of Pennsylvania, or the election
of the governor of any State. Further,
it was declared by such powerful In
vestisators as Senator Thomas j. Walsh
of Montana, Senator Norris Of Nebraska
and Senator Wheeler Of Montana that
the Senate has no authority to investi-
gate the election of Gov. Fisher. Yet
they say the day of miracles is past.
The question of the Senate's author
ity to inquire into the election Of Gov.
Fisher arose when Joseph r. Grundy,
the new and long awaited Senator from
Pennsylvania, appeared to take the
oath of ONCE. Senator Nye OF North
Dakota offered a resolution to deny
Mr.. Grundy the right to retain the
seat to which he had been appointed by
Gov. Fisher. Mr.. Nye's theory was that
If the Senate had right to turn out,
or rather refuse to receive, William S.
Ware, who was elected in 1926 because
Of the heavy expenditure of money in
the primary at which he was nomi-
mated, it had just as much right to
turn back Mr. Grundy, who not only
raised $400, 900 to be used in that cam
paign but also came to the Senate at
the hands of a governor for whose
ticket in that campaign there had been
expended three times as much money
as was expended for the Ware ticket.
In true Tom Sawyer style, the con-
stitutional lawyers in the Senate who
had voted to deny Nj. Ware q seat in
that body could not understand why
Senator Nye should be so dumb" as
not to see the difference between the
cases CT MIR. Ware and Messrs. Fisher
and Grundy. But Mr.. Nye insisted
that If the Senate was anxious to
prevent its seats going to the highest
bidder" in an auction sale" it certainly
should take look at the credentials OF
Mr.. Grundy and give some attention to
the fact that he was the product, more
or less directly, of an expenditure of
100000 in the Pennsylvania primary
campaign of 1925.
The Democratic Senators, most OF
them from the South, to which section
States rights" has been a hallowed
doctrine, except for Senator Cole Blease
of South Carolina, almost solidly voted
against Mr.. Wares being admitted to
the Senate, despite the arguments made
at that time that Pennsylvania voters
| were entitled to send to the Senate any
man they chose in az election. But
yesterday these Democrats rushed to
the States rights colors again. They
denounced any effort on the part Of the
Senate or any of its committees to
challenge the election Of Gov. Fisher
and through such challenge the ap-
pointment of Mr.. Grundy to the Senate.
Senator George of Georgia, for example,
held up his hands in horror at the mere
idea of referring the Nye resolution,
which seemed to attack the election of
Gov. Fisher, to the Senate committee
on privileges and elections. He urged
that the resolution be tabled.
In the end, however, the Nye resolu-
| ton was sent to the committee with
instructions to make report on Mr..
Crundy, while the chairman of that
committee, Senator Shortridge, was pro-
testing mildly against the Senate's i'm
posing "a duty on the committee to
waste its time" For once and for a
time at least, the Senate is not ready
| to investigate one subject.