In the Greatest Club

When the Senate sits again (Dec. 3), merry will be the smiles, hearty the chuckles, wise the "cracks," between Republican Floorleader Curtis and Democratic Floorleader Robinson. Campaigning against each other will have altered their mutual feelings no more than it altered the lack of feeling between the Messrs. Smith and Hoover, who never met. "Charlie" Curtis and "Joe" Robinson are friends as good & old as are "Charlie" Curtis and that other "Charlie," Vice President Dawes, with whom Senator Curtis last week shook hands and beamed at cameras on the Capitol steps.

The Vice President-elect had not, of course, hurried to Washington to ask the Vice President for his gavel or for parliamentary pointers on how to preside over the Senate. For the gavel Senator Curtis can have no use until the business of the Short Session is completed and he has resigned as Senator and has been inaugurated. For parliamentary pointers the Senate's new president, who has ruled over its Republican half since the death of Henry Cabot Lodge (1924), has about as much need as a grandmother has need for instruction in baby-washing.

What the Hon. Mr. Curtis undoubtedly did discuss with the Hon. Mr. Dawes was: who shall succeed Senator Curtis as Republican floor-leader?

Senator George Higgins ("Red Hot Stuff") Moses of New Hampshire, brisk, sanguine, ironic, emphatic, is the Senate's President Pro Tern., i.e., first deputy when the Vice President leaves his rostrum for a snooze, stroll or conference. Senator Moses was Hooverizer of the East, another reason why he "rates" the position. Seemingly, only one thing could keep Senator Moses from being elected second-most-important man in the Senate chamber. That thing would be the same thing-- whatever it was--for which Senator Moses was restrained from being his really dominant self in the Hoover campaign. The only imaginable thing that this thing could be, is that Senator Moses not infrequently admits that he is a Wet.

Quite as Wet at heart but not by record is Indiana's small-eyed James E. Watson, chairman of the redoubtable Committee on Committees, whose claims to leadership will be that he was Republican Whip (assistant leader) under the Lodge regime and that he is undoubtedly one of the most knowing politicians in the business. He can explain his opposition to the Hoover nomination by referring his fellow Senators to the presidential spark burning in all their humble breasts. Senator Watson was mentioned as a possible successor to Leader Curtis and a very likely candidate for President Pro Tern.

The matter does not have to be decided until well along in February. By that time, perhaps the Republican Senators will remember, through renewed daily contact, the industry and ability of the tall, rugged, quiet Senator who sits just in front of Leader Curtis and is his Whip, Washington's Wesley L. Jones, expert on shipping and tending up to business. While a Moses smart-cracks and a Watson frowns or booms into space, while a Borah watches from on high and a Reed haggles and a Fess fusses, Senator Jones keeps his eyes upon and his nose in a mountain of work upon his desk, a mountain that does not consist of mouselike letters to or from constituents but of business of importance to the Appropriations and Commerce Committees and to the administration of the District of Columbia.

Whoever the new Republican Senate leader may be, his task will be easier than Leader Curtis' has been. There will be 55 or 56 faces on his side of the aisle instead of only 48. On the other side there will be only 39 faces, unless Senators Norris and Elaine are asked to sit on the side they tried to help towards the Presidency.

Of the eight new Republicans, six at least will surely be "regular"--Delaware's Townsend, Maryland's Goldsborough, Rhode Island's Herbert, New Jersey's Kean, Connecticut's Walcott and Glenn of Illinois. Perhaps West Virginia's Hatfield will show a streak of independence. Hatfield used to be a fighting name in the Border States and Henry D. Hatfield has known the authority of a Governorship (1913-17).

The new man from Wyoming, Charles Edwin Winter, used to be a Representative (1923-27). Before that he was an oilman and a judge. His home is at Casper, near famed Teapot Dome and Salt Creek. He is a Shriner. But Senators like Borah and Johnson have taught Washington to view with some circumspection any statesman from the great open spaces who has risen to Senatorial rank.

A figure with whom the new Republican leader will not have to deal, because he was elected only to fill out a dead man's term ending March 4, is New Mexico's Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo. Born nearly 70 years ago in Chihuahua, Mexico, Senator-elect Larrazolo came to fame by the escalator system of teaching school, clerking in courts and a district attorneyship. He was Governor of New Mexico for 1919-21.