Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-25
The Political Mill
By C. Could Lincoln.


Committee, seeks to drive Mr.. Norris
and "others like him" out of the
G. o. p, the more difficult it seems
Since Mr.. Lucas in his appearance
before the Senate Campaign Investi-
eating Committee suggested that he
would be glad to see Mr.. Norris vote
with the Democrats in the organization
Of the next Senate, Senator Norris has
announced he has no intention of
voting with the Democrats and init
mates that he will vote as Republican.
He insists, indeed, that he is a Repub-
lican par excellence. And now Senator
Borah of Idaho, another of the insurgent
group in the Senate, has come out even
more forcefullY to proclaim that he Is
not going to vote with the Democrats
These insurgent leaders do love the
Republican party. There seems no
doubt about that Even Representative
Will Wood of Indiana, chairman of the
Republican Congressional Campaign
Committee, has not succeeded in shak-
ing them loose from the c. o. p,
although he dubbed Senator Norris a
'consummate demagogue" and declared
that too many people today are mas
querading as Republicans" which
seemed to include Mr.. Borah and other
progreSSiveS.
~ ~
If Mr.. Lucas and Mr.. Wood had come
out with strong demands that Senator
Norris and Senator Borah show their
devotion to the G.. o. p. by voting with
regular Republicans in the organization
of the next Senate the insurgent leaders
might have waved away these demands
impatiently. But the denunciation by
the regular Republican leaders of these
insurgents has had an opposite effect.
Who so strong now in their Republican
ism as Mr. Norris and Mr.. Borah?
Perhaps the attacks by Lucas and Wood,
after all, will result in uniting the Re-
publicans once more against the Demo-
cratic foe. It would be joke, indeed.
If the insurgents felt they must show
their party colors by sticking to the
Republican leadership in Senate organ
ization. Certainly if they broke away
and voted for the Democrats they would
lend color to the charges now made
against them that they are not Republi-
cans.
For it will not do for the insurgents
to turn down their party while they are
under fire. They could do so with i'm
punity as long as the Republican leader
ship was content to watch their political
antics and say nothing. But when the
insurgents are openly charged with
desertion and with being no longer men,
bers OF the Republican party they don't
like it at ALL
Perhaps the insurgents will decide in
the end to support candidates of their
own choosing in the organization of
the Senate. They might put forward
Norris, for example, for President pro
tempore of the Senate against the reg
ular Republican nominee, probably
Senator Moses of New Hampshire. Their
action would tie up the Senate so
far as organization is concerned. The
Democrats will not have a majority in
the next Congress, nor will the regular
Republicans. Yet majority must vote
for Senate officers in order to elect
them.
Senator Norris, having been scored
by Representative Will Wood as the
latter was leaving the White House, i'm
mediately declares in an interview that
he considers that President Hoover has
had a hand in the plot to defeat him
for the Senate, and now to eliminate
him from the @. o. P. 1t does not seem
possible that Senator Norris or any one
else in the country could imagine that
Mr.. Hoover would have shed any tears
If Mr.. Norris had been defeated. Norris
President Hoover. But to Mr.. Norris
it appears that the President is disloyal
to his party if he should think of op-
posing Norris for reelection to the
Senate. But the Nebraska Senator goes
further and implies that the President
had something to do with the litera-
ture which was sent at Mr.. Lucas ex-
pense to Nebraska last Fall to be used
against Norris. There has been nothing
to prove that the President had a hand
in this matter. Mr.. Lucas stated en-
phatically last night from his home in
Louisville that President Hoover NOR
any one in the White House had any
knowledge or were ever consulted about
my action in connection with Senator
Norris"
The mistake that Mr.. Lucas made
was in acting secretly in the matter of
sending this literature into Nebraska
1t has given the insurgents a handy
argument against him. They are using
it to the limit. If President Hoover
backs up Mr.. Lucas and insists that he
be kept on the job as executive director
Of the Republican National Committee,
Mr.. Lucas critics will transfer in part
their attacks from Lucas to Mr.. Hoo
yer. They will insist that the Presi-
dent condones secret and undercover
action against his political foes, just
because he holds on to Mr.. Lucas. The
insurgents Will do their best to make
the issue one of undercover politics
rather than one of actual loyalty to the
Republican party. Senator Norris de-
sertion of the party in 1928 they mini
mize. However, if many of the Repub-
lican leaders follow the Course of Rep
resentative Will Wood End open fire on
Mr.. Norris, and seek to put him in the
renegade class, it will be difficult to
avoid the desertion issue after all.
Mr.. Lucas, in his latest statements,
makes the test of loyalty to the Repub-
lican party support of the party's presi-
dental ticket. He differentiateS be-
tween Mr.. Norris and Mr. Borah, be-
cause of Norris support of Smith while
Borah was supporting Hoover vigor-
ously. Il have no quarrel with any
member Of the Republican party, pro-
gressive,s or otherwise, who supports
presidential candidates" says Mr.. Lucas
The only Republican" member of the
Senate today who supported Al Smith
openly in 1923, outside of Mr.. Norris,
is Senator Blaine of Wisconsin. Blaine.
like Norris, went all the way over to the
Democratic nominee. He went over be-
fore Norris did, as matter of fact The
senior Senator from Wisconsin, Rob-
ert M. La Toilette, jr., did not commit
himself one way or the other in the
presidential race that year. He worked
for the reelection of progressive Sena-
tors, whether Democratic or Republican.
1t seems that Mr.. Blaine must be the
subject of Mr.. Lucas opposition as well
as Senator Norris 1t is fact that all
the rest of the progressive Republicans
did not bolt the Republican ticket. SEN
ator Brookhart of Iowa, for example,
was one of the most ardent campaign
ers for the presidential ticket, along
with Senator Borah.
The attempt to isolate Norris from
the rest of the progressive group-and
Blaine-and To hold him IN &c n L.