Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-01
SENATE'S UNPOPULARITY
is SHOWN IN PRIMARIES
Democrats Claims of Gains Are Dissi.
pated. but Their Contention of Dis
content Is Borne Out by Returns.

ington and throughout the country.
Indeed, It Is a common saying within
the Senate itself.
Senator Caraway of Arkansas, among
other Senators, has said that he recog-
nizes that the Senate is low in public
esteem. Senator Caraway thought that
a partial explanation OF it lay in thing
that he condemned, namely, the spec
tacle of certain Democratic Senators
changing their votes on the tariff as
part of a trade In which they got tariff
benefits. While Senator Caraway named
this as one cause for the disesteem Of
the Senate. some other Senators claim
that a quite considerable contribution
to the lowered regard in which the Sem
ate is held comes from the rather harsh
and violent performances of the SEN
ate's lobby investigating committee, in
which Senator Caraway Is one of two
or three dominant figures.
Senate Is Held Unpopular.
Be that as it may, the central fact
is that the Senate is unpopular. The
statement is made occasionally in so
many words, within the Senate itself.
The same statement, or one having es-
Sentially the same meaning, is made
very frequently in the Senate in a Diff
ferent form.
One day last week Senator Hiram
Johnson of California was arguing for
a postponement of Senate action on the
naval limitation treaty. Among his rea-
sons he said: THE members of the
Senate, because of their fatigue after
so many months work, are neither
physically nor mentally in a condition
wisely to legislate." That statement or
its equivalent is made over and over by
Senators themselves. It Is made with
especial frequency by one of the two
physicians who are Senators-0o copeland
of New York
Senator johnson and Senator Cope
land and others who describe the condi-
ton Of the Senate in these words mean,
OF course, just what they say. They
really think that the trouble with the
Senate is that it is tired. And the
truth is the Senate is tired. 1t has rea-
son to be tired. 1t has been almost
steadily in session since the first Mon
day in December, 1928-just 10 months.
But man who is tired is not neces-
sarily for that reason unpopular. And
what is true of man is in this case
true OF an institution. Often a man
who is tired wins for that reason the
public sympathy. This is a familiar
experience of public speakers. An audi
ence that likes speaker because Of
what he is saying and because of his
personality tends to give him added
sympathy if it notices that he is tired.
The case of the Senate is too complex
to be explained by saying merely that
1t Is tired. What a Senator may de-
scribe as fatigue may be in some cases
a different thing, and the causes Of
fatigue are so bound up with the fatigue
itself as to call for careful discrimina-
ticn If we are to find what the trouble
is.
Four par4IeH n. Senate
The Senate consists normally Of two
parties, but actually of three-four, II
we include the one Farmer-Laborite,
Shipstead of Minnesota, as a party"
Essentially Senator ShipStead is an in
Surgent Republican. It Is With-ti1em
that he commonly votes and eo-operates.
There are 80 Democrats. They are q
definite unit with permanent strength,
though anywhere from 5 to Is of them
frequently vote with the Republicans on
the tariff.
Then there are Sc Republicans-nom-
inally. Actually, the Sc Republicans
must be looked upon as two parties.
There are, roughly, II consistent and
roughly, Is insurgent Republicans. The
two groups compose essentially separate
parties. There is more difference be-
tween them in politics and more emo
ttonal rancor than commonly exists be-
tween Republicans and Democrats. The
inSurgent Republicans hate the regular
Republicans far more than they hate
the Democrats. Indeed, the inSurgent
Republicans do not hate the Democrats
at all.
Each of these three parties-regular
Republicans, insurgent Republicans and
Democrats-haS its own reason for be-
ing tired, for being irritable, for being
petulant and for being ineffective. And
each OF these groups contributes its own
quota to the common pull of irritability.
inefectiveness and other qualities that
make the Senate unpopular as whole.
Regulars Lack Power.
The regular Republicans are tired and
irritable because they are in one of the
most disagreeable of all possible situa-
tons. They have responsibility without
having power. They are supposed to be
the majority party. They think Of the
country as looking to them to dominate
and to legiSlate, and they realize that
they do not dominate-and do not legis-
late as they would If they were a ma
Jor1ty party in the normal and effec-
tive sense.
might be comfortable enough. They are
the minority party and they ought to
be able, comfortably and consistently,
to live up to the role of an opposition
party. But the difficulty with the DEM
ocratS, unconsciously corrosive to
their spirits. is that they have allowed
their role to be taken away from them.
They have permitted their leadership
to be seized by the insurgent Repub-
licans.
The principal issue in this session of
Congress has been the tariff. But who
thinks OF the opposition as being led
by the Democrats? When the public
reflects upon the fight against the
tariff, do they think of it as having
been led by the official Democratic
leader, Senator Robinson of Arkansas,
or by Senator Simmons of North Caro-
lima? Does not the public think of the
opposition as having been led by one
of the insurgent Republicans, Senator
Borah of Idaho?
Similarly, in the opposition to con-
firming President Hoovers appointees
to the Supreme Court, Chief Justice
Hughes and Judge Parker, who thinks
position? Does not the public think
of the fight as having been made by
insurgent Republican Senator Norris Of
Nebraska or insurent Republican Sem
ator Borah Of Idaho?
Democrats Led Tariff Fight.
The fight in behalf Of the Senate's
version of the flexible tariff was actually
led by Democrats and made by Demo-
Gratis; but so common is 1t to think
of the initiative as coming from the in
surgent Republicans that nearly every
one suppoSes 1t was Borah who made
this fight.
In the attempt to inject the deben-
ture plan into the tariff and the pre-
ceding attempt to make the debenture
plan part of the farm relief bill, 1t
was the insurgent Republicans who in
itiated the idea and made the fight.
ActIlallU though the nn,,,on.a4. ~