Evening star., 1947-06-28
The Political Mil
Presidential Succession
Bill Foyors Republicans
Martin and Nandenberg in Line for
Office Under Measure
BY Gould Lincoln

BY Gould Lincoln
As soon as the House puts through and
President Truman approves the Senate bill
changing the law of succession to the office of
President two Republicans will be first and
second in line for that Office should President
Truman die. be incapacitated or resign prior
to the termination of the presidential term
Mr.. Truman now is serving They are Speaker
Martin of the House and President Pro
Tempore Vandenberg of the Senate
Under the existing law of succession, Secre-
tary of State Marshall and Secretary of the
Treasurer Snyder, both Democrats. would be
in line to succeed Mr.. Truman and after
them the other members of the cabinet. The
Senate bill places Messrs Marshall and Snyder
in the line of succession after Mr. Vandenberg.
There is every reason to believe that the
House will act promptly on the bill and that
it will be approved by President Truman The
House passed similar measure during the
last Congress- but the Senate substituted for
it a proposal for the further study of the whole
subject of succession to the presidential Office.
Bill Initiated by Truman.
President Truman initiated the proposal for
a change in the line of succession, first in the
last session and again in the present Congress.
When he made his first recommendation
Democratic Speaker, Rayburn, presided in the
House, and a Democratic President pro tenn
pore, McKellar, in the Senate. The picture
changed politically, when the Republicans won
control of the House and Senate in the elec-
tions last November. But Mr.. Truman did not
change He stuck to his original proposal, to
the chagrin of many of the Democrats on
Capitol Hill who have no desire to see Re-
publican in the White House under any con-
ditions.
So the bilT introduced by Senator Wherry
of Nebraska, Republican whip of the Senate,
last February was strenuously opposed by
nearly all of the Democrats in the upper house.
The vote on passage of the bill stood SO to 80.
Only three Democrats voted for it, Senators
Chavez of New Mexico, Johnson of Colorado
and oDaniel of Texas No Republicans OPP
posed it.
Naturally Mr. Truman did not propose the
change in line of succession to the presiden-
tial Office in order to put Republican In the
White House should any mishap remove him.
He had what he considered a good reason;
first that the power to name a Chief Execu-
tive of the Nation should not rest in the
hands of one man-the President or his sue
cessor, who picks a Secretary of State.
Secretary of the Treasury, etc; second, that
the Speaker of the House. elected as he is
by the people in his own congressional dis
trict as a representative, and by his col
leagues in the House as the presiding officer
of the House, should be first in line to act as
President if both the President and Vice Presi-
dent should be unable for any reason to serve.
Mr. Truman held that the Speaker would most
nearly represent the electorate.
Senate "Stiffnecked."
The Senate, in the past, has been stiff
necked in its opposition to placing the Speaker
of the House as first in this line of success
sion-it insisted that its own presiding officer,
the President pro tempore elected by the
Senators, should be given first place. 1t was
obvious however, that the House would not
agree to give way in this matter, and that
if the law of succession was to be changed,
as recommended by the President, the Wherry
bill or something like it, would have to be
put through. So the Republican leadership,
perhaps with an eye to possible eventualities
between the present and January, 1949, went
to work to pass the bill
Democratic Senators sought, through num-
ber of proposed amendments and several mo-
tions to stave off the passage of the Wherry
bill as reported from the Senate Committee
on Rules and Administration. Senator Rus
sell of Georgia, for example, offered an amend
ment which would have made the President
pro tempore of the Senate first In line of
succession, and the Speaker second. This,
however, did not tempt the Senate Republicans
to stray away from the Wherry bill
Senator Vandenberg, who would have been
the beneficiary of such a change took the
floor in opposition to the Russell amendment.
He declared that this was in no way to be
considered a popularity test between himself
and Speaker Martin; that the Speaker, as
the elected officer of the House Of Congress
whose total membership is elected once every
two years. should have priority.
That wound up the fight so far as the
Russell amendment was concerned. 1t was
turned down 55 to 81, with Democrats vot-
ing with the Republicans Senator Mcclellan
of Arkansas, Democrat, offered amendment
providing that the change in the law should
not take place until January 20, 1949, after
the close of the present Truman term in the
White House, and that was defeated so to 36.
And so were motions to recon1mit, made by
Senators Green of Rhode Island and Hatch
of New Mexico, both Democrats.
The law of presidential succession as it now
stands, was enacted in 1886. It's change was
one of Mr.. Truman's early recommendations.
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