Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-22
The Political Mill
By C.. Could Lincoln.

ago. has been hooked I'D in one row
after another with the Senate. From
the uproar in the Senate it might ap'
pear that the Senate had scored heavily
against the Chief Executive. But il
hasn't. Except for pages in the Con
greSsional Record and in the newspa'
pers devoted to criticisms and attack!
of every kind on the President. there
seems to be nothing to chalk up fol
the Senate. On the other hand. Presi'
dent Hoover has had his way in every
clash with the Senate, except In thu
matter of national origins" as a bash
for immigration quotas, the matter o!
the increase in pensions for Spanish
War veterans and the nomination o.
Judge John j. Parker OF North Caro-
lima.
X ~
Just recently the Senate-or, rather
the anti-Hoover coalition in the Senate
rent the air with its attacks on thu
Chief Executive and his program o.
relief legislation. When the Senate tool
a recess early Sunday morning for th'
Christmas holiday Mr.. Hoover's pro-
gram, with small amendment, had beer
enacted into law. Senate amendments
Senate threats to hold up legislation
until it had 1t the way the coalition
wanted it, all went into the discard
There were two reasons: First, the Sen
ate knew that the country wanted re-
lief legislation more than it wanted
Senate speeches and Senate delay, and
second, the House, strongly organized
and prepared to follow its leaders, IL
contrast to the Republicans of the Sen
ate, stood back of President Hoover
The Hoover victories have been alst
victories of the House. The House does
not mind bit treading on the Senate
tail, so to speak.
Mr.. Hoover won in his contest with
the Senate coalition on the farm relic.
legislation; he had his way in large
measure SO far as the tariff is con.
cerned. although many of the Senate
coalitonists were with him in his fight
to keep the measure to limited" re-
vision. But he kept the "debenture'
out of the tariff bill as he did out Of
the farm relief bill, and also won tr
his contention for continuance of tht
flexible provisions of the tariff law
though in modified form. He won, too
wnen it came to the ratification of the
London naval treaty, which was op.
posed by a determined minority of the
Senate at the special session calico
by the President to consider the pact
l1oO OuAy. 44lCAC WCIC IuCbIOIlo bklk
Senate over the appointments of the
President TO the Supreme Court-Chiet
Justice Hughes, for example. Bu
Hughes was confirmed. Th9re was an.
other roar from some of the Senator!
when Mr.. Hoover sent in the nomina-
tions of the new Federal Power Com.
missioners, headed by DR.. George Oti,
Smith as chairman. But all the nomi-
nations have now been confirmed.
The President took wallop at tbs
Senate when it's criticism of his RELIEF
said that some members of Congress.
were playing politics at the expense
of human misery. In Washington tn;
immediate reaction to this remark wa,
a Senate at fever heat. But out II
the sticks-back beyond the confines Of
the National Capital and across tbs
Ohio, the Mississippi and other rivers
the reaction was decidedly different
That is one reason that the President!
relief program has been disposed of al
last, after so much attack in the las
three weeks.
But while Mr. Hoover has been sue
cessful in his clashes with the Senate
there has been a lot of trouble for tht
Republican national Organizations
which the President after all is con
sidered the titular head-caused pri
marily by the acts, stupid for the mos
part, of officials of the organization, anC
brought to light by the activities O.
senatorial committees. These senatorial
committees, particularly the Senate
Lobby Committee, headed by Democrat
Mr.. Caraway of Arkansas, and the Sen.
ate Campaign Investigating Committee
headed by Republican insurgent, Mr.
Nye of North Dakota, have certainly
played the deuce with the Republican
National Committee. The Lobby Com
mittee led of when it dug up trans
actions Of former National Chairman
Claudius H. Huston of Tennessee, as
president of the Tennessee River I'M
provement Association. Mr. Huston
finally was forced out of the chairman
ship-although he resigned in his OWL
good time
And now the Nye Committee has de-
veloped the fact that Robert H. Lucas
Of Kentucky, executive director of the
National Committee and political he'll
presumptive of Chairman Simeon D
Fess, took about $4,000 of his own money
to circulate in Nebraska literature anc
cartoons attacking Senator George w
Norris of Nebraska, Republican nominee
to succeed himself in the campaign
which recently closed with the election
of Norris. The executive director of the
G. o. p. apparently is out of pocket and
Norris is in the Senate. A very salts
factory outcome for Norris, who has an
other opportunity to make himself Out
martyr. The Progressive Republicans
in the Senate and out will continue now
to shoot at Mr.. Lucas as long as he re-
mains in his present position. If it Is
proposed to make him chairman of the
National Committee, the uproar is likely
to become even more deafening.
\ y
According to the information so far at
hand, Mr.. Lucas takes all the respon-
sibility of seeking to defeat Mr.. Norris
in Nebraska after Norris had won the
nomination. He did not tell
his chief, Senator Tess, about the
transaction at all. Mr.. Fess was de-
clarlng to the newspapers that Repub-
Ican nominees generally were to be
supported. This was supposed to in
clude even Mr.. Norris. 1t looks as
though Mr.. Lucas was going to have a
hard time differentiating between his
acts as an individual and his acts as
executive director of the Republican
National Committee, however. Once q
man has been placed in an Official po-
sition, everything he does is considered
in the light of that position.
The troubles of the Republican ma
tional organization apparently have a
way of multiplying. In the old days,
when Butler. Will Hays, Frank Hitch
cock and others back to the time of
Mark Hanna presided over that G. O.
P. National Committee, things ran
along in very different shape. Senate
committees were at work even then
but they never turned up such embar-
RAISING things about the National
Committee as they have in the last
year or two.
Naturally there Is going to be a lot
of conversation about the future of the
National Committee. It had
been expected that Senator Tess, who
merely took over the job of being chair
man as an accommodation at time