Michigan's Vandenberg

Editor Arthur Hendrick Vandenberg of the Grand Rapids Herald, 44-year-old Republican, Mason, Shriner, Elk, Woodman, was appointed Senator from Michigan last week to succeed Woodbridge N. Ferris, 75-year-old Democrat who died of pneumonia last fortnight. Mr. Vandenberg made the fifth journalist in the Upper House. Fellow Republican publishers to whom he can look from behind his horn-rimmed glasses for encouragement in his maiden speech are Cutting of New Mexico, Capper of Kansas, La Follette of Wisconsin. Senator-publisher Carter Glass of Virginia sits across the aisle among the Democrats.

Though he was a friend and admirer of Woodrow Wilson, Editor-Senator Vandenberg's Republicanism is thoroughgoing. The Herald which he has edited for 22 years is owned by onetime (1907-19) Senator William Alden Smith, oldtime G. O. P. stalwart. As an author, Mr. Vandenberg is best known for his Alexander Hamilton: The Greatest American.

In appointing Senator Vandenberg, Governor Fred W. Green of Michigan stressed the advantage of youth as a qualification for the rough-and-tumble of life in Washington committee rooms. This was interpreted as a gentle explanation of why Joseph Warren Fordney, onetime (1899-1923) Michigan Representative, had been passed by. Mr. Fordney, whose massive girth and demeanor are well suited to his reputation as an Old Guardsman, is 74 years old.