Evening star., 1935-12-26
A Thin Blue Line.

Death has taken another Republican
Senator. Into his place in the Upper
House will step soon Farmer-Laborite
under appointment by Gov. Floyd B.
Olson, And so the number Of Repub-
lican Senators shrinks to paper figure
of twenty y-three-pitifully small. 1nclud-
ed in that figure is the senior Senator
from Nebraska, G. orge w. Norris, who
has been Republ Jean in name only for
a lorg period of years and who has re-
Gently announced that he will not seek
denomination in any party primary that
he may the etter be able to support the
Democratic President for reelection.
Five years ago a prediction that the
Republican membership of the Senate
would be cut to its present dininutive
size would have been greeted with lncred-
ulous smiles. The G. O. p, however, went
into tail spin with the great depression.
Conservative and progressive Repub-
lican Senators alike have suffered in the
Democratic landslides. Fate, apparently
not content with these reverses at the
polls, has lessened the Republican
strength in the Senate by two within the
last few months When the late Senator
Bronson Cutting of New Mexico was
killed in an airplane crash the Demo-
cratic Governor of that State promptly
appointed Senator Chavez, who had been
Cuttings opponent in the election of
1884 Cutting, although he had supported
President Roosevelt for election in 1882,
became a strong critic Of the Roosevelt
administration and denounced vehe-
mently the proposals made in its original
economy bill cutting down the benefits
given the disabled war veterans. So in
cenSed was the administration that when
it came time for the election of a Sem
ator in New Mexico last year, as Cut
ting'S term was about to expire, the
Democratic national organization threw
all its weight into the scales to defeat
Cutting. The efforts of Cutting on be-
half of President Roosevelt two years
earlier were forgotten.
Senator Schall, probably next to the
late Senator Huey P. Long of Louisiana,
was the most bitter critic of President
Roosevelt in the Senate. He did not
mince words in speaking of the Chief
Executive, whom he accused Of being
dictator. On the eve of the opening Of
a new session of Congress tragic death
has claimed him, too.
Under the provisions of the Constitu-
ton, only one-third of the membership
of the Senate comes up for election every
two years. The chances of large Repub-
lican gains in the senatorial elections
next year, therefore, are limited at the
start by this constitutional provision.
Winning its way back to the control OF
the Upper House is task which the
G. o. P. may we'll find long and tedious.
1t has, to be sure, a chance of regain
ing number of Senate seats next year,
for there are twenty Democratic Sem
ators up for reelection, including the
recently appointed Chavez of New Mex
leo. Minnesota will be battle ground,
too, with Gov. Olson seeking election to
the seat until recently held by Senator
Schall.
A wide swing Of the political pendulum,
with the Roosevelt New Deal on the
down grade, may bring victory to some
of these Republican contenders for seats
in the Senate now held by Democrats.
Only through series Of biennial elec-
tions, however, can the Republicans hope
to win majority of the Senate. In the
meantime the thin line of Republican
regulars II and irregularS is in an
awkward position in the Upper House Of
Congress.