THE CONGRESS: Elections

“Do I have to show a tax receipt?” asked Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon, wary billionaire.

“No, Mr. Mellon,” said an election clerk in Pittsburgh, as she proudly handed him a ballot.

Turning it over twice, like a boy with a mechanical elephant, he queried: “Do I have to sign my name to something?”

“No, Mr. Mellon.”

The Secretary sought a booth, lifted its curtain cautiously, peeked in, went in. Three minutes* later he emerged, gently waved his ballot about, finally saw the ballot box, deposited his document. ”

Thus did many another citizen on Nov. 2, thereby creating 35 new U. S. Senators, a new generation of U. S. Representatives, 31 state governors, hosts of other state officers. (See p. 11.)

Most significant are the Senatorial elections. The Democrats captured seven seats now occupied by Republicans. The make-up of the 70th Senate which comes into office on March 4, 1927, will be:

Republicans 48

Democrats 47

Farmer-Laborite 1

96

Although unable to organize the Senate and appoint its majority committees, the Democrats plus Farmer-Laborite Henrik Shipstead plus any one of the half dozen Republican insurgents will be able to control all legislation. And, such being the case, it seems probable that the two slush-tainted Republican Senators-elect, Frank L. Smith of Illinois and William S. Vare of Pennsylvania, will not be seated.

The Senate battles were devoid of any great national questions which involved a conflict of the two major parties. Instead, they hinged on personalities and local issues. High lights:

¶ The only direct repudiation of the Coolidge Administration came in Massachusetts where the President’s good friend, Senator William M. Butler, was smitten down by David Ignatius Walsh, Democratic Wet, Irish-Catholic. Even in Northampton with the added stimulus of the President and Mrs. Coolidge’s personal votes, Senator Butler barely nosed out Senator-elect Walsh by 53 votes. However, the slap at the Administration is somewhat lessened by the well-known, potent vote-getting powers of Mr. Walsh and the colorless conservatism of business-like Senator Butler.

¶ In New York was found the biggest surprise of the election. Senator James W. Wadsworth Jr., Republican Wet, heretofore regarded almost as much of a New York institution as Governor Smith, came down to the Bronx with a plurality of 250,000. There he met onetime Justice Robert F. Wagner, Democrat, coming up from Brooklyn and the “East Side” with a plurality of 380,000. Mr. Wagner was elected. The new Senator was once a newsboy on the lower East Side with an extraordinarily keen mind and a lust for law. His untarnished reputation on the bench and the tarnished humanity of Tammany Hall and the power of the “Al” Smith banner were enough to lift him to the Senatorship.

¶ Other Democratic Senatorial gains came in Arizona, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma. In these States, Democrats recovered seats, once theirs, which had gone astray in the Harding landslide of 1920.

¶ In Illinois, in spite of slush, in spite of the hostility of the potent Chicago Tribune and Daily News, Frank L. Smith was elected. He came up to Cook county (Chicago) with a lead of 150,000; met George E. (“Boss”) Brennan, Democratic Wet, to whom Cook County had given a plurality of 80,000. In New York State the Democratic city can swing the state, but not in Illinois. The Independent Republican crusader, Hugh S. Magill, ran a poor third.

¶In Pennsylvania, William Bauchop Wilson, Democrat, accomplished the lesser half of a political revolution by entering Philadelphia with a lead of 2,500. But the historic Philadelphia Republican machine swung the election to William S. Vare by some 230,000 votes. Mr. Wilson had carried 55 counties; Mr. Vare, 12.

¶ It was in such states as Pennsylvania, Indiana, Washington, Oregon, which are usually counted easily Republican, that the real significance of the election is to be found. Here the off-year anti-Republican trend was most noticeable, the Republicans winning by unusually small pluralities. For example, in Indiana, Republican Senators James E. Watson and Arthur R. Robinson were reelected by some 20,000 votes instead of the normal 100,000 Republican majority. The Democrats have asked for a recount in several counties, but this will probably not change the results.

¶ In Maryland that ardent letter-writer, Senator Ovington E. Weller, Republican, was defeated by Representative Millard E. Tydings, Democrat, who rode to victory on the wave of Wet-and-popular Governor Ritchie. Mr. Weller’s campaign philosophy was that every voter would like to have a cheery letter from a U. S. Senator. He congratulated mothers on the birth of babies; he flattered fathers who had become outstanding figures in their communities. Even Governor Ritchie’s mother and his private secretary, and Senator-elect Tydings had their backs slapped by Senator Weller’s “personal” letters. These must have produced laughs rather than votes for Mr. Weller, who made no stump speeches. (On the Senate floor he has scarcely opened his mouth except to vote.)

¶ Since he was the only Republican Senator to be elected last week by a bigger majority than he had received in the Harding landslide of 1920, George H. Moses of New Hampshire announced that he felt like the “spared monument” of the Atlantic seaboard. Said he:

“The chief of the election results, as I see it, will be the performance of much ‘high politics’ in Washington during the next two years. By that I mean that the 90-odd candidates for the Presidential nomination who are members of the United States Senate will begin to perk up ”

¶ Senator Ralph H. Cameron of Arizona, Republican, was twice pained last week. His re-election hopes were blasted by Representative Carl T. Hayden, Democrat. His plea for an investigation of the Democrats’ campaign expenditures turned around and smote him. The publisher of the Prescott (Ariz.) Courier testified‡ that Senator Cameron’s secretary had asked him: “How much will you take for your newspaper for about 30 days?”

¶ New faces in the 70th Senate will be:

Hugo L. Black, D. Alabama

Carl T. Hayden, D. Arizona

Charles W. Waterman, R. Colorado

Frank L. Smith, R. Illinois

Smith W. Brookhart,* R. Iowa

Alben W. Barkley, D. Kentucky

Arthur R. Gould, R.† Maine

Millard E. Tydings, D. Maryland

David I. Walsh,** D. Massachusetts

Harry B. Hawes, D. Missouri

Robert F. Wagner, D. New York

Elmer Thomas, D. Oklahoma

Frederick Steiwer, R. Oregon

William S. Vare, R. Pennsylvania

John J. Elaine, R. Wisconsin

¶ Old Senatorial faces re-elected are:

Thaddeus H. Caraway, D. Arkansas

Samuel M. Shortridge, R. California

Hiram Bingham, R. Connecticut

Duncan U. Fletcher, D. Florida

Walter F. George, D. Georgia,

Frank R. Gooding, R. Idaho

James E. Watson, R. Indiana

Arthur R. Robinson, R. Indiana

Charles Curtis, R. Kansas

Edwin S. Broussard, D. Louisiana

Tasker L. Oddie, R. Nevada

George H. Moses, R. New Hampshire

Lee S. Overman, D. North Carolina

Gerald P. Nye, R. North Dakota

Frank B. Willis, R. Ohio

Ellison D. Smith, D. South Carolina

Peter Norbeck, R. South Dakota

Reed Smoot, R. Utah

Porter H. Dale, R. Vermont

Wesley L. Jones, R. Washington

The House. In the elections for the House of Representatives the Democrats made a net gain of 12 seats, but did not endanger the Republican majority. The new House division:

Republicans 237

Democrats 195

Farmer-Laborites 2

Socialist 1

435

¶George H. Combs Jr., 27, Democrat from Missouri, is the new “baby” of the House, deposing Samuel J. Montgomery, 30, Republican, from Oklahoma.

¶ Mrs. John Wesley Langley, Kentucky Republican, was elected to the House of Representatives to succeed her husband who is now serving a two-year term in the Atlanta Penitentiary for conspiracy to violate the prohibition law

(TIME, Aug. 23). Bone-dry mountaineers cast many a vote for her. Eighteen other women failed of election. The three present Lady members of the House, were reelected: Mrs. Florence P. Kahn, California Republican; Mrs. Edith N. Rogers, Massachusetts Republican; Mrs. Mary T. Norton, New Jersey Democrat.

¶ County Prosecutor C. B. McClintock of Canton, Ohio, famed for hunting down the slayers of Publisher Don R. Mellett (TIME, July 26) was politically “knifed” last week. He had wanted to go to Congress, but his Jungle foes were potent at the polls. Canton’s fourth ward, never before Democratic, repudiated Prosecutor McClintock two to one. Said his opponent, Congressman John McSweeney, Democrat: “Nobodydeplores more than I do what is now apparent that he was punished politically in his home town today for doing the duty of the office to which he had been elected.”

¶ From far-flung igloos, from scraggly frame houses, from the curves of lovely harbors came alert Alaskans to the polls. Without the aid of slush funds they re-elected Dan A. Sutherland, Republican, as Delegate to Congress.

*President Coolidge took 3 minutes to mark his ballot; Vice President Dawes took 8.

*Before Senator William H. King of Utah, who represented the Senate campaign funds investigating committee.

*Mr. Brookhart was in the Senate from 1922 to 1925. In Iowa young David W. Stewart, Republican, was elected without opposition to finish the term of the late Senator Cummins in the 69th Senate.

†Mr. Gould was nominated last week to fill the term of the late Senator Fernald, expiring in 1931. In Maine the Republican nomination is usually equivalent to election.

‡Mr. Walsh was in the Senate 1919-25.