Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-24
Republicanism.

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senator Norris of Nebraska is OBJ
secting because his Republicanism i:
called into question. Yet Mr.. Norris
curing his recent campaign for cleo
ton to the Senate against his Demo
cratic opponent, Haunted in the oper
his defiance of party. Party loyalty
according to the Senator from Nebraska
is not to be desired. The man in pub
lie life must be at liberty to vote with
whatever party he sees fit. Mr.. Norris
obviously was defending during his
campaign his abandonment of the Re-
publican national ticket in 1928 and his
frequent votes against measures sup
ported by his Republican colleagues in
the Senate. His Democratic opponent
Mr.. Hitchcock, was contending for party
loyalty and regularity and declaring
that a breakdown in the tWo-party sys-
TEN in this country would be misfor-
tune.
But now Mr.. Norris asserts boldly
and with some rancor that his Republic
canism is the best brand. In his latest
statement in the row that has developed
over the senatorial campaign in Ne
braska, Mr.. Norris declares that he was
fighting for the Republican party when
Mr.. Hoover himself was a resident and
voter of Great Britain. Pretty nearly
ever since Mr.. Hoover returned to this
country, however, Mr.. Norris has been
fighting against what, to the general
public, is known as the Republican
party.
The fact of the matter is that Mr..
Norris, In 1923, turned his back on the
Republican party and voted Democratic.
He sought in every way he could TO
make his State follow him. But he
could not. Nebraska voted for Mr..
Hoover by 147,00o over Alfred E. Smith,
Mr.. Norris Democratic candidate.
When Mr.. Norris talks about the Re-
publicans of Nebraska following him. he
might stop to consider their action In
that election. It has been quite oo-
yious, too, that Mr.. Norris received a
great mass Of Democratic votes In the
recent election. These Democrats ala
not vote for Mr.. Norris because he was
a Republican. They voted for him be-
cause they believed that he was bet
ter Democrat than a Republican.
Mr.. VIII Wood, chairman Of the Re
publican Congressional Committee, has
pinned a label on MIR. Norris. Assert
ing that the Senator from Nebraska is
neither a Republican nor a Democrat,
Mr.. Wood has dubbed him 'consum-
mate demagogue" Mr.. Norris has not yet
claimed that Mr.. Wood is no Repubh-
can, although he insists that Mr.. Wood
Is lending himself to a plot of con-
spirators ''in their disreputable methods
Of controlling the party The time
appears to be coming, however, when
Mr.. Norris, who deserted his party in
1928 and who urged Democrats to vote
for him in 1880, by declaring that party
lines should not exist, will proclaim
that he himself is the Republican party
Mr.. Norris is correct when he asserts
that the opposition TO his reelection by
Republicans, including Robert H
Lucas, executive director of the Repub-
ncan party, should have been in the
open and not in secret. It should have
been. The present attack on his Re-
publicanism, as announced by Mr.. Wood
is quite open. Mr.. Norris deserted his
party. He resentS now the fact that
Republicans are criticizing him for that