Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-21
The Political Mill
BY G.. Could Lincoln.

Senator Norris of Nebraska will have
to forego the experiment of running
as an independent candidate in the
senatorial election this Fall. At the
eleventh hour Friday Chief Justice Goss
of the State Supreme Court ruled that
George w. Norris of Broken Bow, Nebr.,
the Senator's nameSake; was not en-
titled to go into the Republican sena-
tortal primary on August IL. That
being the case, Senator Norris let his
name stand for the Republican sena-
torial nomination. He runs as q Re-
publican after all
Probably the Nebraska Senator would
prefer to run as an independent.
Although he has always stood for cleo
ton to the House and later to the Sem
ate as Republican, he has had the
non-partisan idea in politics. He has
voted Independently and without re-
gard to party. politics, using his own
best judgment. The courage which he
has shown in following his Judgment in
these votes has been responsible in no
small part for his popularity among
the voters of his State.
1t is obvious, however, that If party
government is to continue in this cOun-
try. candidates for Office must wear
party labels. And If party government
is to be effective, must support party
measures. If all the members of the
Senate and House, Democratic and Re-
publican alike, adopted the Norris plan
of voting entirely without regard to
party regularity, there would soon be a
very different alignment on legislation,
and the old parties would go to smash.
Perhaps new parties would spring up
in their places, or maybe a plethora of
parties, as in some of the older coun-
tries of Europe, where the bloc system
in parliamentary bodies has arisen, just
as it has threatened to arise in the
Senate of the United States.
1t will always be a moot question as
to whether Senator Norris, running as
an independent for the Senate in Ne
braska, could win this year. Some of
his admirers insist that he would have
been stronger as an independent candi-
date than as a Republican. But that
is mere guess work. A party ticket,
generally speaking, is a help to a sin
gle candidate. The late Senator La
Toilette. independent as he was, stuck
to the Republican party all through his
long career as dominant leader in
Wisconsin politics-until his last cam
paign.
Out in Nebraska there are, 1t is said
Republicans who not only resent the
fact that Senator Norris supported Al
Smith, wet and Catholic, but who
are raising the issue against him this
year, just as the issue has been raised
Carolina and Hefiin of Alabama that
they supported Republican, Mr.. Hoo
yer, for President.
When Theodore Roosevelt bolted the
Republican party in 1912, he sought to
set up another party, the Progressive
party. He had no particular fondness
for running as an independent" He
believed in party government. When
the experiment with the new party
failed. Roosevelt and most of his fol-
lowers came back into the old Republic
can fold. Many of his followers con-
tinued to be elected to Congress as
Republicans and the former President
himself in all probability would have
been the G. o. P. NOMINEE for Presi-
dent in 1920 had he lived.
Pennsylvania fused for the better
part of three years because 1t was
represented in the Senate by just one
tional allowance to all States. Then
Mr.. Grundy, Uncle joe" as he came
to be called, came to Washington to
sit in the place to which William S.
Ware had been elected in 1926, but
to which the Senate would not admit
him. Mr.. Grundy stuck around few
weeks while the tariff bill was being
considered in the Senate, failed to be
in the Pennsylvania Repub-
lican primary and lost interest in the
Senate. In fact, since the day he was
beaten soundly by Secretary James j.
Davis of the Department of Labor in
the senatorial primary, Mr.. Grundy has
been in or around Washington very
little And now Pennsylvania is con-
tinuing to be represented by one Sena-
tor, David A. Reed. Mr.. Reed is doing
a good job. Indeed, in the present
treaty fight he has taken on the bur-
den, along with Senator Robinson of
Arkansas, the Democratic leader of ex-
planning the treaty to the Senate. But
where has Mr.. Grundy been? The
junior Senator has gone, it is reported,
to Europe. He has not been in Wash
ington since the special session of the
Senate opened to deal with the treaty,
nor, according to reports, does he in
tend to have anything more to do
with the Senate. He is through. Not
a particularly good loser, he has found
his incurSion into senatorial life not
quite SO pleasant as he might have.
1t cost him $4,000 to run for the
senatorial nomination and got moth
ing for the money, unless his support
of Gov Pinchot against the Philadel-
phia machine candidate, Francis Skunk
Brown, may be said to have been a
great satisfaction. But he could have
Pinchot without himself rum
ming for the Senate.
\ X X Il
Down in North Carolina the Demo-
Gratis who defeated the veteran Sena-
tor Simmons for the senatorial nominal
ton this year and picked Bailey in his
place have a regretful way of speaking
of the defeat of Mr.. Simmons They
insist he merited defeat because he
bolted his party'S national ticket in
1928, but they are sorry that he had to
suffer a defeat at the close of long
career in the House and Senate as the
representative of their State. He led
them in many battles in the past and
what they did to him a month or so
ago. after all, does not sit very we'll on
their consciences. This does not apply
to those political leaders who were OPP
posed to Mr.. Simmons right along.
They are only too glad to be rid of
him. Furthermore, the opponents of
Mr.. Simmons are not Growing so Justify
over their defeat of the veteran as they
might, perhaps fearing that Mr.. Sim
mons friends would resent it and not
flock to the polls with much enthu-
siaSm to vote for Mr.. Bailey in Novem
Der against his Republican opponent.
X X \
No one has yet suggested that Rep