Insurgents Resurgent

(See front cover)

Last week the busiest men in Congress were that heterogeneous crew of Republican Senators and Representatives called Insurgents. They passed no big bills. They made no important speeches. They upset no prime appointments. Yet with their busy-buzzing activities they managed to keep President Hoover on pins-&-needles. Though he had checkmated their attempt fortnight ago to recall three Federal Power Commission nominatons, they found new and diverse ways of obstructing his orthodox Republican leadership.

Senate Doings. By combining their strength with the Democrats, the Senate Insurgents were able to : 1) get an extra appropriation of $50,000 for their Slush Fund Committee to continue bedeviling regular Republican Senators-electon their campaign expenditures; 2) recall legislation to modernize three battleships which was later passed a second time over their pacifist protests; 3) order investigation, into the disproportionate prices of flour, bread and sugar. The Insurgents' frank desire for an extra session of Congress lent realism to the threat of Democratic Leader Robinson to force one unless his $25,000,000 Federal food fund for Drought sufferers was accepted by the Administration. If Congress-rejected this proposal, Senator Robinson, confident of Insurgent assent, warned Republican leaders: "You can stick your appropriation bills up--on the shelf." Later they helped Senator Robinson attach his relief plan to the Interior Department appropriation bill where they vowed it would stick in spite of President Hoover's objections.

In The House. With a good thumping Republican majority Speaker Longworth. Floor Leader Tilson and Rules Chairman Snell have ruled the House since 1925 by brute force rather than by parliamentary skill or legislative ability. No such majority will they have in the next Congress to enforce their will. Hence last week Republican Insurgency raised its head again in the form of a demand to liberalize the House rules as the price of party support. Well aware that the 12 or 15 disgruntled votes from the Northwest could wipe out their control, Messrs. Longworth, Tilson & Snell were ready to compromise. What the Insurgents were ready to fight for included: 1) elimination of the "gag" rule which cuts off debate and bars floor amendments on controversial legislation; 2) power to "discharge" a committee and bring a bill to the House floor on petition of 100 members, instead of, as now, 218 members. A Republican House caucus late next month will thresh out the rules issue and renominate Congressman Longworth for the Speakership. provided Representatives whose wives feel that Mrs. Longworth has snubbed them do not have their way.

What Is Insurgency?" Insurgency is as old as Congress. Its prime characteristic is rebellion against party discipline. Occasionally it reaches such a pitch that it sheers off into a third party (Roosevelt in 1912; La Follette in 1924"). Normally it works within the party organization. Insurgent Republicans expect their party to advance them to important posts but feel no obligation to render party support in return. Exercise of free judgment is their great tenet.

The political ancestry of present-day Insurgency goes back to Bryanism and beyond. Though they are called Radicals by their enemies (they call themselves Progressives) the present Insurgents have no historical kinship with the radical Republicanism of Sumner and Stevens which imposed military Reconstruction on the South, impeached President Johnson Some members became Insurgents under Speaker Cannon's tyranny (1903-11) and have never lost the habit. The rebellion of others goes back to the Republican schism of 1912 and the formation of the Bull Moose Party. The agrarian revolt in the Northwest as a result of post-War depression swept still others into the Senate. A fourth group is composed of occasional, "intellectual" Insurgents from normally regular states who join the faction only on special issues.

The Senate Insurgents have no political cohesion. They agree upon no large program of legislation. They recognize no leadership within the group. That their votes are cast together is the result of chance, not predetermination. Two general factors give them unity: 1) hostility toward President Hoover as a representative of the reactionary wing of their party: 2) a vague agreement on certain economic principles. A third factor, present in other Senators too, is a great pride in the Senate per se.

Suspicion of Big Business colors all Insurgent economic beliefs. They doubt the good intentions of private enterprise. The hydro-electric industry, to them, is an industrial ogre whose head must be chopped off by Government control or competition. They shudder at what they call U. S. Imperialism in Central America. To them war is but a profiteer's game, taxation a special burden for the ultra-rich to bear, the railroads a greedy octopus out to strangle the farmer.

Inside the Senate the Insurgents have their petty feuds and jealousies among themselves. They are all prima donnas Outside the Senate they have little or no social intercourse as a group. Some Insurgents take their fun with the regulars; others take no fun at all.

Old-line Insurgents:

George William Norris, hollow-eyed, white-haired, of Nebraska, who led the Cannon revolt 21 years ago. Partisanship, to him, is the curse of politics. Sincere, saturnine, intellectually honest, he fights for Government operation of Muscle Shoals, elimination of the "lame duck" session of Congress, judicial reform. As chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he is hardworking but perennially frustrated. He is President Hoover's bitterest Republican antagonist in the Senate. He likes to write parody verse, put his feet on his desk, listen to sporting events on the radio, go to bed at 10 o'clock. Great and noble a few million think him.

Hiram Johnson, white-crested, well-fed, of California, who was the Bull Moose nominee for Vice President and has since eaten out his political heart because the Republicans would never nominate him for President. A high-speed, rabble-rousing orator, he uses his vote as a protest against the Californian who did get elected President. Constructively he forced through the Boulder Dam Act, groaned aloud when its name was changed to Hoover Dam. On foreign relations he is the Senate's isolationist ramrod. Rich, aloof, he plays at home with his many dogs.

New-line Insurgents:

Robert Marion La Follette, chubby and dressy, of Wisconsin, who cheerfully follows his father's credo without half of his father's fire. "Economic injustice" is his chief cry. An experienced parliamentary troublemaker, he blurts criticism of President Hoover. He does much legislative homework.

John James Blaine of Wisconsin, a big, heavy-handed La Follette follower whose booming inanities sometimes even make the Insurgents wince in shame.

Smith Wildman Brookhart, chunky, unbrushed, of Iowa, who loudly supported Herbert Hoover in 1928 only to denounce him just as loudly in 1929. Originator of many a tricky farm relief proposal, he affects unpolished manners, shuns a dress suit, shoots a marksman's rifle, suffers a nervous twitching of the face. Recently he has abandoned the pretense of an appalling ignorance.

Gerald Prentice Nye of North Dakota, who has changed from a young smalltown editor with a plumber's haircut into a classy-cut newspaper hero. No constructive legislator, he has made the Campaign Expenditures Committee, the chair of which fell to him by accident, into a vehicle for constant personal publicity. Married, he likes to dance in his off hours.

Lynn Joseph Frazier of North Dakota, whose head is the shiniest and baldest in the Senate. Out of that head came the startling proposal to abolish war by constitutional amendment.

Occasional Insurgents:

James Couzens of Michigan, who, for all his wealth, likes to attack millionaires. He is against railroad mergers. Third Party advocates want him to finance the cause.

Peter Norbeck of South Dakota, who drills water wells for an occupation and supports the White House only when it means patronage for his state.

William Henry McMaster of South Dakota, who proposed putting Senators and Congressmen in front-line trenches in case of war. A good impersonal debater, he plays golf, likes baseball games, keeps friendly with all factions.

Bronson Cutting of New Mexico, who is an Easterner by birth and education (Groton, Harvard), a Westerner by political preference. A wealthy ex-Bull Mooser, he helps finance other Insurgents' campaigns.

Robert Beecher Howell of Nebraska, an Annapolis graduate who went into civil engineering, drifted into politics as a Norris man, disagrees with the Insurgents on naval reduction.

Thomas David Schall of Minnesota who, blind, boasts of his "100% love for the Common People of America."

William Edgar Borah. Greatest Insurgent of them all, the man whose shadow from the Capitol falls farthest across the land, is thickset, long-lipped, blue-eyed William Edgar Borah of Idaho. All the world knows that he is the Senate's supreme orator, that he rides his horse "Governor" alone in Rock Creek Park every morning, that on his head is a mane of shaggy dark hair. All the world does not know that he carries a pocket comb, that he licks his thumb and slicks down his eyebrows, that he scribbles his name on loose paper when listening to other people.

Senator Borah last week did just the sort of thing that makes his critics call him a trimmer, and the Insurgents despair of him as a member of their group: Before the Senate were the Tariff Commission nominations. Senator Borah arose to say: "What kind of hybrid monstrosity are we creating by constituting these special commissions to deal with expert subjects and placing upon them men who are in no wise qualified as experts? Congress is rapidly delegating its power. We are surrendering the duties imposed upon us by the Constitution. ..." But when the vote came on Commissioner Edgar Brossard, accused of representing the beet sugar interests, Senator Borah was found paired for him, presumably because Idaho produces sugar beets. Senator Borah has said: "I am proudest of my 'Nay' votes."

Two kinds of speeches does he make, the long exposition of a large subject, the short explanation of his own position. The latter always begins: "I want to say something in regard to my vote." Thus did he open a fine-drawn justification of his vote fortnight ago for the recall of the Power Commission nominations. He reasoned that of course the Senate had no legal power to take the nominations from the President but that he assumed the President would welcome an opportunity to resubmit them to the Senate to clear himself of the suspicion of befriending the "Power Trust."

Of German and Irish ancestry, Borah was born 65 years ago in Wayne County, Ill. His father was land poor. The boy read Shakespeare, saw Edwin Booth, yearned to go on the stage. Instead he went to Kansas, studied law there, moved on to Boise a year after Idaho's admission to the Union (1890). There he began a general law practice ultimately worth $30,000 per year. He married the then Governor McConnell's daughter Mamie. His professional reputation grew when he prosecuted the Coeur d'Alene dynamiting case and the case following assassination of Governor Frank Steunenberg in his own yard. In 1907 the Idaho legislature sent him to the U. S. Senate where he has remained ever since.

A non-social character, Senator Borah divides his time between his Connecticut Avenue apartment and his dark, ground-floor offices on The Hill. He rarely attends parties or theatres. As Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, he refuses to allow himself to be lionized by the diplomatic corps. He is suspicious of Washington Society. Once he thundered: "It is far simpler to agree than disagree in Washington. If there is an atmosphere in God's world that weakens a man's backbone it is the atmosphere of Washington. The diluting process is constant and drastic." An explanation by Mrs. Borah: "Billy would be so happy if it weren't for the pleasures of life." Because he did not think he was entitled to it, Senator Borah has refused to draw more than $7,500 of his $10,000 salary.

His greatest fights have been against the 18th Amendment (though he is crusading Dry), the 18th Amendment, the Child Labor Amendment, the League of Nations. Charles Beecher Warren as Attorney General, Charles Evans Hughes as Chief Justice, the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act. Constructively he worked for the Income Tax Amendment, the creation of the Department of Labor, the Kellogg Peace Treaty, the direct election of Senators.

Always individualistic in his political preferences, Senator Borah refused to follow Roosevelt into the Bull Moose Party though he thought Taft had stolen the Republican nomination. Likewise he let La Follette go off by himself as the Progressive presidential nominee. President Coolidge once summoned Borah to the White House, offered him a "place on the ticket." The Senator is said to have asked: "Which place?"

He was Herbert Hoover's greatest oratorical supporter in 1928, but broke with him soon after the inaugural because the President disapproved of the export debenture plan of farm relief. Today over the President's objections Senator Borah is demanding a special session of Congress because "we will find it very embarrassing to go home."

As an orator, Mr. Borah's chief characteristics are deliberateness, earnestness and a meticulous selection of words. He speaks without notes, says ''If you don't get any new thoughts while on your feet you'd better sit down." An adroit phrase maker, he knows the dramatic value of repetition. It was Borah who said of Mexico: "God made us neighbors; let justice make us friends." Daniel Webster is his political hero, Ralph Waldo Emerson his philosophic guide, Honore Balzac his chief source of literary amusement. Once in puritanical disgust he burned a whole set of Frank Harris in his office.

Idaho pridefully named its biggest mountain for him and his League of Nations ("Little American") speech (November 1919) was so effective as to reduce even cold, tough-minded Henry Cabot Lodge to running tears.

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