Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-14
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

4
and in the Government as it is now
| organized, there is new condition,
| i from a geographical point of view.
It is interesting, but I doubt If 1t is
| important. Political power does not di-
| vide itself sectionally to the extent that
1t once did. cat least it seems safe to
make this assertion today: by the end
of the coming special session We may
think differently He has no parallel
to the early stages of the conflict over
slavery-when every time a new North
ern State was admitted to the Union a
Southern State had to be admitted to
keep the balance even in Congress.
The fact that for the first time we
have President born west of the Mis-
siSsippi, and also a Vice President born
west of the Mississippi, does not really
mean that the West, by virtue of that
fact, has any special power or leverage.
No one thinks of either President
Hoover or Vice President Curtis as hav-
ing Western point of view, in contrast
to an Eastern point OF view. On the
contrary both Mr. Hoover and Mr.. Cur
It's opposed the old McNary- Haugen bill
with its equalization fee, which-so 1t
was claimed, though by no mean proved
the West wanted Similarly, Secre-
tary Of the Interior Wilbur comes from
| the West-California. But Mr.. Wilbur
together with President Hoover has re-
Gently taken a drastic step in the con-
servation of oil on Government lands,
which step is approved by practically all
the country except the West-where
three governors-Wyoming Colorado
test meeting which denounced the
Hooyer-Wilbur act as the act of Mus
solini" ut should be added that ac-
cording to dependable information
much of the West agrees with what
President Hoover and Secretary Wilbur
| have done)
| Changing Trend.
! There is changing trend of political
power in the United States. The pres
ent article will expand on it farther
down. This real drift Of power has
little or nothing to do with the geo.
graphical location of President. Vice
President and cabinet members. Changes
in the location of these officials justify
treatment here because they are inter-
esting. though not because they are
important.
To begin, the President was born in
one State west of the Mississippi. Iowa.
the first President born west of the
Mississippi. California. Mr.. Hoover is
the first President born west of the
Mississippi. The most nearly Western
! President we ever had before was Lin
| coin. elected from Illinois, although
born in Kentucky.
Similarly, for the first time, we have
Vice President born, reared. and now
living west of the Mississippi River.
Charles w. Curtis, of Kansas. He, as
in the case of Mr.. Hoover, is the first
Vice President born west of the Mis-
sissippi Mr. Curtis is of the West
primeval. Preceding MIR. Curtis the
most Western Vice Presidents have been
Dawes of Illinois, born in Ohio, and
Adlai z. Stevenson of Illinois, who
ssrved with Grover Cleveland.
Turning now to the cabinet. No par
ticular inference is to be made from
the geographical distribution of it. Five
come from the Middle West, two from
Pennsylvania. one from New York. ono
from New England and one from the
racific Coast.
/ Situation in House.
/ If this survey be extended into Con-
gress, it will reveal that a strikingly
large portion of the chairnen of the
more important committees come from
west Of the Mississippi. For example,
a list of important Senate committees,
! with their chairmen and the States the
F! chairmen come from, show:
Foreign relations Borah. Idaho:
| finance. Smoot, Utah; judiciary, Norris,
| Nebraska: appropriations. Warren,
/ Wyoming: banking, Norbeck. South Da-
kota; commerce, jones. Washington;
] immigration. johnson. California.
! In the Lower House the showing is
rather different. There the chairmen
! Of the more important committees come
/ kn To
| tant committee chairmanships in the
! Lower House held by the West are:
| Ways and means. Hawley. Oregon; inn
| migration, johnson, Washington.
| All this, so far, has comparatively
| little meaning or importance. About all
that can be said is that there is a steady
western drift of the center of popula-
| ton. Along with the movement of the
center of population goes, in a rough
way political power. In the cabinet the
Middle West has of the 10 members
and the Far West has / more. In the
Senate a decidedly striking number of
| important committee chairmanships are
held by Western Senators. In the Lower
House, on the contrary, the West hardly
| has its share of important chairman
ships.
Head Tariff Committees.
Neither one way nor the other does
| it mean much. For example, the two
| tariff making committees are ways and
| means in the House and finance in the
Senate The tariff is supposed to be a
subject in which the manufacturing
East is peculiarly interested. Yet both
| chairmen of the two tariff making
committees come from the Far West
Hawley of ways and means from Ore
gon and Smoot of finance from Utah.
But no one has ever charged that these
! two Westerners are any less orthodox
on the tariff than any characteristic
fastener would be-
| There are under way, however, some
really important changes in the geo.
graphical distribution of political power.
One Is about to occur in the Lower
House of Congress. That body during
! the coming session will be ''reappor-
| tioned"-that is, the number Of MEM
bers from each State will be changed
on the basis of changes in population
| revealed by the census of 1920 and to