Kansas Revolt

Republican members of the 72nd House of Representatives met last week in what began as a caucus and ended as a conference.* Their purpose was to arrange for party organization of the next House in which, at most, they have a paper-thin majority of two votes. From the meeting 18 Republicans, including five regulars from Kansas, deliberately absented themselves. Despite these defects which left it a House minority, the G. 0. P. renominated Nicholas Longworth of Ohio to be Speaker and John Quillin Tilson of Connecticut to be Majority Leader.

The worth of these nominations depended entirely upon the absentees whose votes could throw House control to the democracy and elevate John Nance Garner of Texas to the Speaker's dais. Eleven of them were independents from Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, who sought liberalization of the House rules as the price of party support. The other seven bolted as a protest against the Longworth leadership which had refused to bring up at the last session oil embargo legislation demanded by independent producers against the big importing companies. Representative-elect Harold McGugin announced from Topeka that he would vote Democratic on House organization-- a possibility which would produce a 217-217 tie to be broken by Farmer-Laborite Kvale. Three days later the death of Wisconsin's Republican Henry Allen Cooper, House dean (see p. 34), reduced G. O. P. strength to 217, threatened a hard Democratic campaign to tie the House.

*The majority decisions of a caucus are binding upon all present; those of a conference are not.

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