A Radical Change

Thirty-one times, Senators of the United States cast their ballots without a majority of them being able to combine in the choice of one man for an important committee chairmanship. On the thirty-second effort they succeeded. Senator Ellison Du Rant Smith, South Carolina Democrat, was elected to the disputed post (TIME, Dec. 24, 31) of Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Committee.

A. B. Cummins of Iowa, President pro tem, of the Senate, was the loser of the Chairmanship. Mr. Cummins, who came to Congress in 1908 as a radical and foe of the railways, who fought side by side with LaFollette and Borah in the insurgent movement of yesteryear, was defeated by the votes of his former comrades. Mr. LaFollette swung his radical group into the Democratic column, carrying with him three other Republicans, Brookhart, Ladd and Frazier, and the two Farmer-Laborites, Shipstead and Magnus Johnson. Bruce of Maryland, lone Democrat, clung to Cummins to the last. The final vote was : Smith, 39; Cummins, 29; Couzens, 6 (38 necessary to elect). There were 22 members absent, nearly all of whom were paired.

The Man. Senator Smith of South Carolina was really elected by the radical group. Their backing of him was largely due to the fact that he opposed the rate-making section (Section 15-A) of the Esch-Cummins Transportation Act. That effort won the commendation of LaFollette. Otherwise Senator Smith is not known as especially radical. His place in the Senate, which he has held since 1908, came about largely from his extensive part in organizing the Southern Cotton Association. He is a cotton Senator, a fighter of the boll weevil. Despite his husky voice, he is comparatively mild mannered. He has been Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Committee before -- from January, 1918, to March, 1919.

The Significance. The radicals and Democrats together are counted as having now a majority of nine to eight in the Interstate Commerce Committee.

Now that they control its Chairman, too, there is little likelihood that the regular Republicans can prevent them from reporting out amendments to the Transportation Act, which would make radical reductions in freight rates. These amendments may well be passed by the same combination on the floors of both houses. But if President Coolidge exercises his veto, there is small probability of any change being made in the Transportation Act. The advantage gained by the radicals is that, with the Democrats' aid, they can report out their measures and discuss them on the floor.