Organization

On December 3 Congress assembles. It is then expected to adjourn in memory of the late President Harding. On December 4 the House will probably begin organization, but the Senate is likely to adjourn again in honor of its three members lately dead--Senators Dillingham of Vermont, Nelson of Minnesota, Nicholson of Colorado. On the 5th, the Senate will begin organization.

When the Houses set about electing officers and naming committee members, the strategy of each group will be about the same in Senate and House.

The regular Republicans will naturally try to keep control of everything.

The LaFollette group will have its candidates for office which it probably will not elect; but it will endeavor by this means to prevent the election of extreme conservatives, and to obtain for itself important committee places.

The Democrats, might, by alliance with Republican insurgents, elect their own men to official places, but this is not their plan, for they would rather make the Republicans assume full responsibility for the next Congress. The Democrats will, however, demand greater representation on committees because the Republican majorities are reduced in the new Congress.

The important Senate Committees were composed in the last Congress of ten Republicans and six Democrats. It is proposed to change this proportion to nine-seven. If the regular Republicans yield to both insurgent and Democratic demands, they will be in the same committee situation which they are in on the floors of the Houses--without an effective majority.

The Senate. The chief fight in the Senate's organization will be over the post of President pro tern. Because there is now no Vice President, the President pro tern of the Senate will be its permanent presiding officer. In addition he will have the Vice President's salary ($12,000, instead of $7,500), the Vice President's motor car, the Vice President's offices, and other perquisites. In short, the job of President pro tern has an entirely new and shining attractiveness.

In the last Congress, Senator A. B. Cummins of Iowa held the post. He would like to have it again. The LaFollette group do not object; they rather urge it. " But," they say, " when Mr. Cummins has these new duties he must give up the Chairmanship of the Interstate Commerce Committee." " But," reply the regular Republicans, " if Mr. Cummins leaves the Committee, Senator La Toilette, by seniority rule, will become Chairman of it--he would be able to play with the railways just as he and the other 'radicals' desire."

The House. Insurgent tactics in the House are similar to those in the Senate. But there is a prospect of more delay in organization. Frederick Huntington Gillett, Speaker of the House during the last two Congresses, is the gentleman at whose expense the game may be played. For the last 30 years, continuously, he has represented the Second District of Massachusetts in Congress, a thoroughly seasoned parliamentarian, valuable to the regular Republicans and not very objectionable to other groups. The Democrats will nominate to run against him, Representative Finis J. Garrett of Tennessee, Democratic floor leader in the last House. His nomination will be purely a matter of form, since the Democrats have no desire to elect him; it is the custom for the minority party to nominate for Speaker, the man whom later becomes its floor leader. The insurgents planned to name to oppose Mr. Gillett, Henry Allen Cooper of Wisconsin, a Representative whose service began at the same time as Mr. Gillett's. His nomination will probably be a matter of tactics. The insurgents by mustering as few as eight votes for Mr. Cooper can effectively block the election of a Speaker.

Such a situation happened once before, in 1855, when the House was deadlocked on organization from Dec. 3, 1855, to Feb. 2, 1856, during which time the clerk of the House presided. Finally a special rule was adopted permitting the Speaker to be elected by plurality instead of a majority, and General Nathaniel P. Banks was elected.

It is guessed that the insurgents will adopt obstructionist tactics of this kind; that after a deadlock has continued, possibly for several days, the regular Republicans will make certain concessions on important committee memberships; that then probably Mr. Gillett will be elected. The compromises may be made with the insurgents or with Democrats, or both. The Democrats want the Republicans to have the Speakership, and, for due concessions, enough Democrats might leave the floor to give the regular Republicans a majority.

Importance is added to this possible delay of organization in the House, because, unless there be unanimous consent to suspend the rules, the President's message cannot be read to that body until it is organized.

While Mr. Gillett's seat is in jeopardy, largely for inter-party tactical reasons, another very real contest has been waged between two other factions for the Republican floor leadership of the House. The conservatives, or " reactionaries," as they are called by their opponents, proposed Representative Nicholas Longworth of Ohio, husband of Alice Roosevelt, for that post. The progressives, a group more to be identified with the Hiram Johnson than the LaFollette type, proposed William J. Graham of Illinois. The odds seemed to be in favor of Mr. Longworth, but probably concessions will have to be made to the Graham group. In speaking for himself, Mr. Longworth propounded the Republican situation as follows:

"As compared with our representation in the last House, we shall be under an additional disadvantage, for we have lost a large number of our best parliamentarians and fighting men. Our former leader, Mondell, will not be with us, nor will Fess, nor Campbell, nor Walsh, nor Stafford, nor Greene, nor Kelley, nor Fordney, nor Reavis, nor--the peer of them all--the late James R. Mann. These were the men who bore the brunt of every battle, and their places will be difficult indeed to fill.

"On the other hand, our opponents have lost none of their fighting force and have a number of additions of great strength. Garrett, and Garner, and Pou, and Crisp, and Rayburn will be joined by Rainey, and Hull, and Cannon [Clarence Cannon of Missouri], whose profound knowledge of parliamentary law is familiar to us all. We, as a party, will have our work cut out for us if we are to emerge from the parliamentary battles of the next session with credit to ourselves and to our party, and it cannot be done without co-operation and teamwork."