Monday, Jun. 16, 1924

Smiling Bob

In April 1922, Mr. La Follette walked down the centre aisle of the Senate with a piece of paper in his hand. It was a resolution which he was about to present for an investigation of naval oil leases by the Committee on Public Lands and Surveys.

Last week the Committee, having wrought havoc in the political firmament wrote its report. On the very day that the report was completed Senator La Follette again walked down the aisle. He held another piece of paper,, and he smiled as he raised his hand and said "Mr. President--."

Senator George Higgins Moses had the floor. He paused and said: "I yield to the Senator from Wisconsin."

Mr. La Follette continued: "I ask the Senator to yield to me to introduce a resolution which I send to the desk and ask to have read."

A page took the paper and transferred it to the clerk who began to read, with the usual stentorian monotony:

RESOLVED: That a special committee of five Senators be elected forthwith to investigate and report to the Senate on Dec. 5, 1924, the campaign expenditures made by or on behalf of, or in support of, or in opposition to any and all candidates for President and Vice President and Presidential Electors; the names of all persons, firms or corporations contributing to the said candidate or candidates or their party commitee or committees, or any other agency; the amounts contributed, pledged, loaned or otherwise made available for use, the method of expenditures thereof, but, as to the facts in relation thereto not only as to the subscriptions of money and the expenditures therefor, but as to use of any means of influence, including the promise of patronage, and all other facts in relation thereto that would not only be of public interest but would aid the Congress in any necessary remedial legislation.

That was all for the moment.

Two days later, on the closing day of the session, Mr. La Follette called up his resolution. Senator James A. Reed proposed to amend it by enlarging the scope of the investigation to include candidates for Senator. The Senate agreed to the amendment. The resolution was put to the "ayes" and "nays" and was passed without a dissenting vote.

Senator Lodge rose and suggested five Senators to be members of the committee:

Borah, Republican, Chairman; Jones (of Wash.) Republican; Shipstead, Farmer-Laborite; Caraway, Democrat; Bayard, Democrat.

The Senate agreed--but it smiled. Senator Lodge had spoken but it was Senator La Follette whose voice they had heard. The old guard was not represented on the list--it was a La Follette, not a Lodge, committee.

So the deed was done and another investigation was set on foot--an investigation that well may play a major part in the coming campaign. There were numbers of Senators who would have preferred that it should not pass, but anyone who opposed it would needlessly have discredited himself.

Its possibilities were plain. It would react to the disadvantage of the Republican candidate, because Republican campaign funds are always the largest. But the Republicans had no love to waste upon Mr. Coolidge. On the other hand--if he should happen to be tne Democratic nominee--it would probably also react on Mr. McAdoo, who has conducted an elaborate pre-conventlon campaign that must have cost a "mint" of money, not to mention promises of patronage. As for Senator La Follette, if he becomes a third party candidate, the investigation will work entirely to his advantage: he will not have the resources of the regular Republicans or even the Democrats and in addition his campaign will be comparatively inexpensive, since it will be conducted in only ten or a dozen states with the hope of preventing a majority in the Electoral College, and securing an election in the House of Representatives. There was one other point for La Follette as a third party candidate: the resolution provided for an investigation of "campaign expenditures . . . made in opposition to any . . . candidate." If an organization should be formed expressly to defeat him, it would be dragged into the light and become as a great talking point in his favor.

Mr. La Follette had a right to chuckle.