Ninth Chair

Last January, one seat at the nine-chaired table of the Interstate Commerce Commission became vacant. To fill it, the President turned to the South. Dozens of Southern names were presented to him, names of able railroaders, "good traffic men." But none of them was what the President wanted. Finally, it was hinted that he had found his man. Was it Richard S. Whaley of South Carolina? At any rate, the ideal Southerner refused the chair.

Then the President sent to the Senate the name of Thomas F. Woodlock. "He lives in New York," cried Senators from the South. The President could not deny it. "He is a financier, a director of the Pere Marquette Railroad and the St. Louis-San Francisco. He writes for The Wall Street Journal, and even edited it once," cried Western Radicals. The President did not deny this. He even let it be known that Mr. Woodlock owed his appointment to his experience as a financier. The biggest problem now before the

I. C. C. is railroad consolidation, of which the financial complexities are almost beyond human understanding.

Mar. 4 arrived: Mr. Woodlock's appointment had not been confirmed. Mr. Coolidge sent in his name to the special session of the new Congress. Administration Senators asked unanimous consent. A few Southerners refused, declaring they would talk the session into summer rather than confirm the appointment. The Senate adjourned without a vote.

Straightway, Mr. Woodlock received from the President an offer of a recess appointment. He agreed to be sworn into the ninth chair.

When the Senate convenes in December, this appointment must be resubmitted. That there will be a dramatic fight is improbable. First, Mr. Woodlock, a Democrat, cannot be rejected unless all Democratic Senators, both North and South, leagued with all Insurgents, vote against him. Second, there is likely to be another vacancy in the nine-chaired table, to which Mr. Coolidge will appoint a Southerner, thus removing the sting from their objections. . . .

The weight attached to Mr. Woodlock's appointment lies in the fact that it has become evident that the President intends to fill Commissions and Bureaus with men of his way of thinking.