Evening Star Newspaper, June 1, 1930, Page 29

Special Articles EDITORIAL SECTION he Sundiy Star, Part 2—12 Pages FRANCO-ITALIAN TENSION GROWS AS IL DUCE SPEAKS Speeches in Northern Italy Create Anx- iety Throughout Improbability of War. BY PAUL SCOTT MOWRER. ARIS—A sudden tension in Franco-Italian relations, follow= ing Premier Mussolint’s unusual Northern Italy speeches is hold- ing Europe breathless, Nobody seriously believes that there is going to be war, yet every one is obliged to admit that many outward signs of increasing hostility are present. The general impression seems to be * that Il Duce, in his speeches openly throwing down the gauntlet to France and exalting Italy’s armed destinies, has gone too far. Spain, which, under its recent dicta- torship, had a sort of agreement with Italy, is drawing off. The British, who seem’ to want to support Italy in the Mediterranean as long as Italy does not make this entirely impossible, appear to be annoyed. Above all, Germany, which recently sent its fleet on a significant visit to Italian ports and listened to Mussolini’s suggestion for an Italo-Ger- man understanding on _the basis of a Tevision of the peace treaties, has just told France, I am reliably informed, that it is flatly rejecting italy's over- tures and intends to continue its rap- prochement with France as before. France Thoroughly Aroused. As for France itself, it is now thor- oughly aroused. For several years French opinion refused to consider Italy a serious menace and the French government, in speeches and through the press, carefully refrained from re- plying to alleged provocations by the Italian press and orators. The French theory was that Italy was bluffing and that with a little more patience and good nature everything would be ami- cably arranged. But events at the London Naval Con- ference and especially Mussolini’s lat- est orations have shocked even French conservatives, sympathetic to Fascist principles, out of their former compla- cency. Eyewitnesses report that Il Duce’s latest speeches were accompanied by cries of “Down with France!” “Nice is ours!” and “Corsica is ours!” from the erowd. The French press is filled with anti-Italian comment. And to Mussolini's praise of cannon and machine guns as being “finer” than words and to his unveiled alternative of “either our valuable friendship or our harsh enmity,” the French minister of ‘war, Andre Maginot, delivered at the reserve officers’ banquet in Algiers Thursday an indirect reply as follows: “As long as disarmament does not make more progress & nation like ours eannot forego an army strong enough to discourage the bellicose tentatives of those who, despite war’s horrors, still nourish aggressive designs. It is im- possible to close our eyes. Like every one else, I want peace, for the love of e is & monopoly of no man or party, t we need a strong army, not with a. warlike thought, but because it is an essential condition of our security.” Italy Seeks Territory. The situation embodies more than a mere exchange of words. For several ears Ttaly has been claiming, by virtue of the agreement under which it en- tered the World War in 1915, cessions of colonial territory. Great Britain soon after the war gave it 90,000 square kilometers (35,156 square miles) of Djubaland and France gave it 120,000 square kilometers (46,875 square miles), known as Ghadanese and Ghatt. Italy says that this is not enough. Tt intimates that it would like from Great Britain, Berbera, the right ulti- mately to occupy part of Abyssinia and possibly some day Malta. From Jugo- slavia it wants the entire Dalmatian coast in order to make the Adriatic an “Italian Lake.” But most of its ambitions seem to be turned toward territories now held by France. Officially Italy demands merely the right of Italians in Tunisia to keep their nationality through all generations and “rectification” of the Lybian fron- tlers, but unofficially through the gov- ernment-controlled press, cession by 1 France has been suggested of Nice,| Bavoy, Corsica, Djibouti and the trans- fer to Italy of the Syrian and Cameroon mandates. French Proposal Rejected. After long negotiations France offered to prolong the nationality rights of Italians in Tunisia and cede the Djubbo Oasis, altogether some 40,000 square kilometers (15,625 miles). Italy seemed | should land troops to defend the regime, | ports that when a voice in the crowd | cried, | turned and sald impressively, “Thou Europe, Despite of friendship and arbitration was on | | the point of signature last Spring, when, | | with the Labor victory in the British| elections, the Italians suddenly rejected | | the French proposals and asked all the territory from Lybia southward to Lake Tchab and then limited their demands | to the Djubbo plus 40,000 square kilo- | meters (15,625 square miles) of adja- cent territory. | The French considered that Mussolini | | was speculating on a rupture of the Franco-British entente, which, indeed occurred soon afterward, and so re- fused. Then came the London Naval Con- ference and the Italian demand for parity with France. It was understood in London that when the conference ended the French and Itallans would as soon as possible reopen negotiations | under British auspices with a view to | | attaining a full five-power treaty. At | Geneva last month the Italians wanted | to talk navies again immediately, and the British suggested a committee of | French, Italian and British experts, but | the French declared that they would | only talk navies after political ques- | tions were settled and that they would | | discuss these not under British aus- pices, but only through regular diplo- matic channels. I am able to state now that as a| result of Mussolini’s speeches, which the French interpret as an attempt at in- timidation, they will refuse for the pres- ent to negotiate with Italy even po- litical questions. Thus all chances of a Franco-Italian settlement and the completion of the London naval treaty have disappeared into the indefinite fu- ture. Increasing Naval Armament. Nor is this all. Italy is building 40,000 tons of new warships during the current years. It is amalgamating the Fascist militia and the regular army to a total of more than 530,000 men. It is re- doubling its diplomatic activity in Ger- many, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey and strengthening its naval bases in Sardinia and Sicily and other vital points. It has already fortified the French frontier. France, as_announced exclusively in these dispatches, is preparing to build 55,000 tons of warships as a reply to Italy's 40,000. The army, which has been reduced to 580,000 men, will, it is rumored, be increased to 635,000. The Italian frontier is being fortified. ‘The naval bases at Corsica and North Africa are being strengthened, it is said, and there is talk of developing a big air base at Corsica. The French fleet has just conducted maneuvers, with landing operations, between Toulon and Corsica in the presence of high army and navy officials. Chief of Staff Gen, Maxime Weygand is reported to be visiting Nice, while the minister of war has been inspecting the fortifications at Toulon and in Al- eria. ¥ And almost at the same time that Italian Minjster Guiratti was explain- ing in a speech that Ttaly was nof, pe- cifist on the present territorial basls, former French Minister Louls Loucheur was proclaiming in Belgrade his ad- miration for the Jugoslav army. Difficulty With Jugoslavia. This last point is perhaps partic- ularly significant, for even now nobody expects to see Italy make a direct attack on France any more than France would dream of attacking Italy. But France has already had difficulty in persuading its ally, Jugoslavia, to ac- cept passively the arrangement made 8 few years ago whereby Albania, on Jugoslavia's flank, became virtually an Italian protectorate. If there should be a political revolt in Albania and Italy which is always a possibility, Jugoslavia and Italy might be involved in & real conflict. ‘A year ago France in this case might have remained neutral, for French opinion was hostile to far-off commit- ments, but now there is a possibility that France, too, might be involved. Herein lies the real danger, European statesmen tend to believe. And not Europeans alone, The Asahi Shibun of Tokio, one of the leading Japanese newspapers, shares this view in a recent editorial. And an inde- pendent_American observer who heard one of Mussolini’s recent speeches re- il “Dalmatia is ours!” Duce hast spoken well.” about to accept this offer and a treaty France Preparing Believed Certain, Says Simonds BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. ASCIST Italy means war. No other interpretation can possibly be atiached to the recent speech of Mussolini at Florence. In this harangue one may discover an F almost exact repetition of the words end of the manner of William II in a score of his incendiary utterances which preceded and prepared the world catas- trophe of 1914. Unless the Italian dic- tator dies and the Fascist regime col- Japses—two things utterly unlikely— Europe must now face the grim fact that a Franco-Italian war becomes an immediate and a continuing possibili‘y. Hitherto it has been customary to in- terpret the Duce’s utterances as designed for home consumption solely and as a detall in his struggle to take and re.ain control. But he has now obtained ab- solute power. The opposition has not been crushed, but annihilated. The op- ponents of Fascism no longer hope for | any early or even remote deliverance, The domestic dangers of Mussolini have been dealt with I. is this circumstance that gives sinister significance to the renewal of the old-style inflammatory public utter- sance, familiar in the early Fascist davs, which set Europe by the ears and cul- minated in the sensational descent upon Corfu. One must conclude, and well informed European observers have reached that conclusion, that in Tevert- ing to his earlier method Mussolini is unmistakably and deliberately laying the foundations for a new adventure, which will be forelgn, not domesticy Albania Is New “Powder Keg." ‘Today, tomorrow, an incident in Tir- ana, where Serbo-Italian rivalry is as intense as was Serbo-Italian rivalry in Serajevo 16 years ago, might relight the flames of a general war in Europe. For no one can now say how far the conflagration might spread were it 10 start again, this time in Albania and not in Bosnia. OF, in quite the same way, a disturbance in Nice or Tunis might bring France and Italy directly into collision, with equally far-reaching consequences. What was most painful to see in the yecent London Conference was the adual straining of Franco-Italian re- fitions, "On the one hand, it was clear that the Italians were still under the empire of the Fascist gospel, which is ired by & nationalism more intense more Chauvinistic than any pan- an doctrines of prewar tims. On the o'h (Copyright, 1930.) for War | that the French had taken alarm; that | they were finally done with the mood | | of more or less patient irritation in the | face of Fascist menace. | " Slowly but surely there is spreading | in France a conviction—like that dis- | trust of Germany which, with fatal consequences, established itself in Brit- ish and French minds before 1918— that Italian intent is for war; that at the back of the Italian mind lies the purpose to resort to war to achieve na- tional ambitions at the moment when the promise of victory is mos. unmis- takeble. And along with this convic- tion goes the determination to resist further menace and to prepare for the conflict which cannot be avolded. France Prepares for Invasion. T is the psychology of resignation, of hopelessness, which constitutes the worst hase of the present situation. Today | | from Lake Geneva to Menton, in Cor- in Tunis, France is quietly but not s consistently preparing to Tesist an Italian invasion which is now consid- ered certain to come. Moreover, the same sort of preparation is going for- ward on the Jugoslay frontler ~from | | Fiumae to the crest of the Julian Alps. ‘The evacuation of the Rhineland, now | shortly 1o be achieved, will release large |1”rPn(‘h forces and permit further con- centration along the Alps. The French policy of conciliation in respect of Germany, begun by Briand, is being carried forward rapidly by Tardieu. Its patent purpose is to insure that France will no: have to fight on two fronts; that her soldiers will not perforce evac- uate the Rhineland, as they did Rome after the outbreak of the Franco-Prus- sian War, leaving behind them a fatal mem:ory. ‘What does the new outbreak of Fas- cist iniransigeance mean? More than all else, it is interpreted in Europe to indicate that Mussolini is approaching the limit of possibility in domestic de- velopment. He has established order. | Economically he has promoted new or- | ganization; industrially Italy has gone forward markedly. But when all the achievement has been measured, it is becoming clear that it does not suffice to remedy the underlying evils—the ex- cess of population, the absence of raw materials, the lack of any outlets for WASHINGTON, D, BY WILBUR FORREST. T is 12 years ago that the 28th In- fantry Regiment First Division, A. E. F, took the little Prench village of Cantigny and performed what the ‘War Department announced Wed- nesday “one of the most important ac- tions, psychologically, in history.” As’ an_initial military operation _the Battle of Cantigny, so-called, had been virtually accomplished before the troops “went over the top.” But psychologi- cally, as the War Department now says it was a great event. It was the first evmencnn offensive action in the World ar. The 1st Division had been rushed from the east of France, where the unit had been in training, into Picardy region after the British 5th Army had been smashed there by the Germans It was an emergency well worthy of the shift. The British were hard pressed all along their front, only to have one of Haig's armies wilt under the German attack. It was an allled disaster of the first magnitude. French Were Weary. ‘The French were heartsore and weary. They had fought to the point of exhaustion. Their reserves were dwindling. The Russian collaj and the German-Russian treaty of Brest- Litovsk had become matter of sober record, releasing about 80 German divisions from the Eastern front to the Western front. The Americans were going over in driblets and those who were already trained in France were of dubious quality in the eyes of the allies. Gen. Pershing and the American offi- cers of the division and of the general staff knew how the American soldier BY RUTH A. WEEKS. MODERN king of kings who has waged victorious war on the Middle Ages, which for centuries have held his empire in their strangling, unrelenting grip, sits on the throne of Abyssinia today and dreams of leading his people out of the throes of lethargy and barbarism. He dreams of dams by which the headwaters of the Blue Nile may be spread regularly over thousands of arid acres of his land in Northeast Africa. He dreams of broad highways radiating in every direction from Addis Ababa, his empire’s capital. He dreams of fieets of motor trucks that will speed along these highways, bringing raw materials to the capital and returning through the verdant hills and valleys laden with | modern goods the like of which his sub- jects have never yet seen or heard of. He dreams of passenger planes flying on regular schedule from the capital to the sea. In short, he dreams of & na- tion that can lift itself by its boot- straps to a place on the economic level of the great powers of modern Europe. Emperor Ras Taffari, “King of Kings of Abyssinia, Conquering Lion of Judah and the Elect of God,” who dreams these dreams is a practical dreamer. For rs now he has been carrying on an unending war upon the Middle A —a war fought literally with lances and spears and swords and shields by the descendants of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Minor victories crowned his banners, but it was only two months ago that the forces of the Middle Ages were crumpled back upon themselves in a devastating defeat that seems to have swept all serfous oppo- sition away and to have set Ras Taffari securely upon his throne. The story of his long war and its swift denouement two months ago in a series of some of the most dramatic events that have ever been caught on | the pages of history seems almost too fantastic to be true. Story of Bloodshed. 1t is & story of revolution and blood- shed—of a deposed emperor guarded by three rings of soldiers, each group set | to spy upon the other; of an empress and her regent, and their struggle for mastery; of the triumph of the regent | nd his coronation as king while the Jealous empress, with most of her power gone, still sat upon her throne. | It. s a story of intrigue—of the em- press plotting with her divorced hus- band against her government and against the man who had seized her | power; of arms being shipped from her palace armory to aid the rebel cause. It is a story of anachronism—of & rebel host of medieval warriors, armed with spears, swords and shields, march- ing in revolt upon the capital: of air- plane machine gunners and bombers | swooping down to spray death upon them. But more than all is it tory of the rise to power of Ras Taffari and of his war upon the Middle Ages—and it is the story of his visions for the future of his medieva) land. The story had its beginning back in 1916. when Ras Taffari made the first important move in his campaign. The revolution of that year had d the emperor, Lij Yaser. Zauditu, daugh- ter of & former emperor, Menelik, Was chosen as empress after she had di- vorced her fourth and last husband, Ras Guksa. The divorce was the result of political pressure—Ras Guksa, not being of royal blood, could not become This situation necessitated the rapidly growing population, Italy within her present limits and| on the basis of her existing resources cannot be & first-class power, Her very existence is at the mercy®f Britain, (Fnniiad “on Fourth page) the appointment of a regent—and here Ras Taffari, grand-nephew of the same | Menelik, saw his chance. He lrnni:d | to have himself named. That was his IGNY OF TODAY INTO ACTION not. Cantigny was therefore of the great- est importance as the first victory for| American troops in the European War | It was reckoned a victory in advance| already begun to shift to the Ameri- and no chances were taken that it should be otherwise. First Victory Essential. The psychological effect upon the allies and to considerable extent upon the great masses of untried and partly ON THE FOLLOWING DAY TAFFARI PROCLAIMED HIMSELF EMPEROR. years. Daily the contest between him and the Empress Zauditu for of the reins of government grew more | acute—and, in October, 1928, after a dramatic and sensational stroke by Ras | daybreak, with the sound of trumpet ‘Tafferi, she had to consent to his being | and amid the clash of sword and lance, crowned King of Shoa, the nation’s chief province. She was still the Em- ress, but constantly Taffari undermined er power. Jealous, the Empress began plotting with her divorced husband. And as a result a rebel army with Ras Guksa_at its head marched upon the capital during the early months of this year., Ras Taffari sought at first to bring this revolution to & peaceful end by negotiation and compromise. But Ras Guksa remained arrogant and unyleld- ing. ‘He issued an ultimatum that Taffari must give up the throne to Lij Yaser, who had geen deposed as Em- peror in 1916. Taffari smiled a wry smile and began concentrating his troops in the province of Tigre, 200 miles northeast of the capital. When he had brought to- gether a nondescript army of 20,000 men e sent his minister of war, Dejetch-| match Molla Cheta, the “complete mas- ter,” to take command in the fleld. Ras Guksa was advancing into Tigre by forced marches from his stronghold at Gondar, hoping to rout the king's forces by a surprise attack. Molla Cheta got word of this and went out to meet him. Daily they grew nearer and night- fall on the last day of March found the scouts of the opposing hordes in | contact with each other at Debra Zebit, | about 70 miles east of Lake Tsana. first trump carc 17 The srch rebel and “the “complete SUNDAY WHERE AMERICAN TROOPS FIRST WENT IN THE would perform, but the allied com-| tralned American troops arri manders and their higher officers did| ntrol | Retainers and [{orcu‘ and by nightfall 10,000 dead MORNING, JUNE WORLD WAR. ving in France as well as the hundreds of thou- sands remaining in training camps in the United States was of vital impor- tance. ‘The burden of winning the war had cans. There had been the famous “backs to the wall” order of Marshal Halg. The French were watching the transports and the ports for more American soldiers, They were down- cast. Should the Americans fail in their first offensive action, no matter order and made plans for the morrow. vassals grouped them- selves about the standards of their knights and feudal chieftains; for at would be waged a conflict reminiscent of the battles of past centuries. But into Abyssinia, remote as it is from the rest of the world, had re- cently come strange and powerful en- gines of war, unknown to the knights and warriors of Ras Guksa. Three French pursuit planes had hastily been acquired and with the Frenchman Andre Malllet, chief pilot of the Im perial Abyssinian Air Force, in com- mand, they had been rushed into the Tay. At dawn on the first of April Maillet and his war birds appeared in the heavens above the rebel camp. Swoop- ing down from a height of 3,000 feet, they flew directly over the headquarters of Ras Guksa, hurling bombs and spray- ing death with machine guns. The arch rebel was surrounded by a brilliant | escort of mounted warriors. Their scarlet tunics and plumed headdresses made excellent targets. Ras Guksa wWas fatally wounded; the nest of machine uns with which the arch rebel had oped to demoralize his enemy was de- stroved by & bomb and the rebel army, dodging the great, green monsters of the air, scattered in hopeless confusion. Ground Strewn With 10,000 Dead. Down upon them came the “complete master” at the head of the King's were strewn over the battlefleld. No| quarter was given and no prisoners were | »®ovi's Bower grew through the | master” arraved thei ~ojjorts in battle |taken among those who disputed the! 1, What Cantigny Meant America’s First Military Operation in World War Had Vital Result in Cheering Allies. 1930. how small or limited, great depression would undoubtedly have spread in the allied countries and especially in France. ‘The psychological factor at Cantigny worked two ways. An American failure would have heartened the Germans, al- ready tiring of war and short of food to an extent that both the German army and the German people would have tightened their belts and made more desperate efforts than those which ‘were carried out later on the Marne and in the Argonne. It was the Ger- man people who broke eventually, not the army. Sandwiched Between French. ‘The first American division in the vicinity of Cantigny was sandwiched between French units and it held a comparatively narrow front. It was, in fact, a parcel of a French army cerps and therefore under French command though immediately under the leader- ship of Gen. Robert Lee Bullard, who later cominanded the 1st American Army. The 28th Infantry was com- manded by Col. Hanson E. Ely, now Maj. Gen. Ely commanding the 2d Corps Area, with headquarters at Gov- ernors Island. For weeks previous to the Battle of Cantigny the division had endured a rain of German steel, estimated by some of the American Artillery experts at 25,000 shells every 24 hours. Villages which were intact when the division marched into the areas soon became rubble heaps. The Germans had bal- loon observation all along the line, so adequate that it was dangerous for any small group of individuals to show it- self in the open lest there come a pep- (Continued on Fourth Page.) He Conquered Middle Ages Ras Taffari, Who Has Become King of Abyssinia, Is Modernizing His Ancient Land power and authority of the King. Only 300 of Taffari's men were killed. It was an overwhelming victory. After the first swift attack of the warriors of the sky and the resulting consternation in the rebel xanks, the planes landed in an adjoining feld. Me- chanics leaped out, and, in accordance with ancient Abyssinian custom, dis- membered Ras Guksa’s body. The head was brought to Malilet, and again the war birds took to the air. On that eventful morning Addis Ababa was quietly celebrating a religi- ous fesgival in the Church of St. George. The nobles, who proudly trace thelr lineage directly to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, had gone early to church, surrounded by their retinues. Services over, they had set out in the rain for the palace of the Empress, for there was uneasiness in the air and the hint of important news. Suddenly & rumor ran through the city like an electric shock, becoming more garbled and contradictory as it spread. And then the cannon before the palace of the Empress boomed 11 times. In this land, living as it does in the Middle Ages, every male able to bear arms is a soldier of the King or of some powerful baron. 8o, with the cannon's boom, every male in Addis Ababa grabbed his gun, his spear or his sword and ran to the palace of the King. Contradictory reports flew about —the rebels had reached the eity, the Empress had been murdered, the King had gone to her palace to imprison her as the chief agent of the revolutionary party. Women and Children Hide in Homes. Women and children disappeared from the streets and shut themselves up in their straw-thatched “tukuls.” Shops were hurriedlv closed and peas- ants from the country who had brought their produce to market fled to cover or joined the palace-bound throngs, leaving their belongings behind them. Looting commenced in the bazaars and the iron gates of the legations and the homes of foreigners banged shut. ‘The rocky, uneven streets of the ram- bling capital became packed with mill- ing, shouting crowds of barefooted fig- ures clad in white “shammas,” resem- bling Roman togas, and armed with every conceivable weapon from curved scimitar and rhinocerous hide shield to the most modern of army repeating rifles. Great and petty chieftains in brilliant garments and on gayly ca- parisone mules raced to the great space before the palace with their retainer: There the news spread among the excited mob that the .King's aviators had drenched the battlefield of Debra Zebit with death; that the rebel chief- tain, Ras Guksa, “general of the first line,” had been killed. Then came an- other report. The “feranji” (foreign) aviator was bringing the head of the revolutionary leader to the capital in his airplane. ‘The crowd in its thousands rushed headlong to the race course, which also serves as the capitals airport. His majesty King Taffarl left his palace in his big green automobile and headed toward the fleld, the shrieking siren opening up 2 wide path for his pas- sage. Behind him, but soon outdis- tanced, pattered his bodyguard, leading his cloth of gold bedecked mule and bearing his guns, his sword, his scepter and his buckler in their brilliant velvet casings. A plane was circling overhead and gracefully maneuvering to a landing. Andre Maillet stepped out and was led over to where the King had mounted a hastily erected dais of rich carpets and silken hangings in front of the makeshift hangars. Under a red parasol hi it on Fourth Page.) | up to some expectations earlier put out | | by the Democrats—expectations cheer- | the Republican standpoint. |on the theory that there is an angry | mood among the people. SENATE’S UNPOPULARITY IS SHOWN IN PRIMARIES Democrats’ Claims of Gains Are Dissi- pated. but Their Contention of Dis- content Is Borne BY MARK SULLIVAN. NOUGH of the Summer’s primary elections have occurred to per- | mit a partial estimate of what | is abroad in the land politically. The results do not wholly live | E ful from their point of view, sad from ‘The Demo- crats told us during February and March, just before the year's political events were beginning, that there was an angry spirit abroad in the land, a mood of sullenness, of discontent with what is. Predicated upon that belief the Demo- crats told us, and have not yet abated their predictions, that they are going in November to make sensational gains in both chambers of Congress. They said and still say they will gain any- where from to 6 Senators, and gain anywhere from 30 to 50 members of the House of Representatives. These predictions and expectations are based Mood of Discontent Is Factor. Now, a popular mood of discontent is a definite factor in politics. It arises once in so often from causes various and not always identifiable. When it gets under way it is about as formi- dable a thing as there is in politics. Commonly it expresses itself in a dis- position to “turn the ‘ins’ out.” It ex- presses itself, not necessarily by voting for anybody in particular or for an: arty, not necessarily in favor of any- ly or anything—but rather in voting against the pa t! 3 In the present situ- ation such a mood, if it exists, would detonate politically to the advantage of the Democrats, obviously—that is, it would explode to the advantage of the Democrats in the November general election. But also the mood, if it exists, would show itself likewise in the party pri- maries now taking place in the various States at the rate of, roughly, one or two each week. Is there such a mood? We have had 80 far two quite important State pri- maries in Pennsylvania and Illinois, and three fairly important ones in Oregon, Indiana and South Dakota. In Pennsylvania the rule seemed to work. The “In,” as respects United States Senator, was Joseph R. Grundy —and he was turned out. Also in Penn- sylvania the nomination for governor went to an outsider, Gifford Pinchot, a candidate without any permanent or- ganization of his own, without any re- Iation to the existing political organiza- tions of the State—the equivalent, for Pennsylvania, of a Western insurgent Republican, Also Worked in Illinois. In Illinois, likewise, the rule seemed to work. A United States Senator, Charles 8. Deneen, the leading Repub- | is. lican in the State (unless we except ex-Gov. Frank O. Lowden and for- mer Vice President and present Ambas- sador Charles G. Dawes) was-denied re- nomination. Senator Deneen has been a leading figure in Illinois politics for more than a generation. He has been governor of the State; he is, in that State, almost a symbol of his party. He was denied renomination and the prize was given to a woman, Mrs. Ruth Hanna McCormick. Reports now from Illinois bear out the theory that Deneen was denied his renomination largely as & result of the sort of public mood here described. Some of the reports say that many persons voted for Mrs. McCormick in a spirit less of voting for her than of voting against Deneen. Some of the reports go so far as to suggest that many persons voted for Mrs. McCormick who have a funda- mental hesitancy about having a woman in the Senate and who, therefore, will not vote for her in the November elec- tion. (If there are such there can hardly be enough to endanger Mrs. McCormick in November, for it is diffi cult to imagine so consistently Republi- can a State as Illinois going Demo- cratic.) In the other States the rule did not seem to work. In Oregon, Senator Charles L McNary got his renomination practically without opposition. In South Dakota, Senator Willlam H. McMaster ot his renomination; he had to fight ard for it, but he got it. In Indiana there was no contest for Senator. There were, however, pri- maries for the nomination of members of the House of Representatives. And when we come to consider the results of the primaries to nominate members of the House, as distinct from the Senate, we get a clue to what is abroad in the land. It is not exactly what the Democrats think it is. Republicans Win House Seats. In every State where Republican members of the House of Representa- tives have come up in primaries for renomination they have won. In Illinois 17 Republican members of the House ran for renomination and all won, except one, as to whom a contest is pending. In Pennsylvania 34 Republi- can members of the House of Repre- sentatives ran for renomination. In Indiana 10 Republican members of the House of Representatives ran for re- nomination and all won. In Oregon three ran and all were successful. In short, in primaries up to date, an aggregate of nearly 70 Republican members of the House of Representa- tives have gone before their constitu- encies for renomination and have been given it. The Republican members of the House, in sum, have a practically per- fect score in winning renomination— | whereas, out of four Senators who have | run for renomination, two have lost. Here, in the distinction made by the voters between Senators and members of the House, we find a clue to what has really happened, a key to the ex- ceptionally discriminating mood now in which the public is. Grouch Directed Against Senators. If anything whatever is to be inter- preted from these figures, it is not what the Democrats have been saying, and it does not necessarily give much com- fort to Democrats. So far as there is a political “grouch” abroad in the land, it seems to be directed not against Re- publicans as Republicans, but against Senators as Senators—probably against Senators regardless of party, although no Democratic Senators have yet come up for renomination. ‘To put it very plainly, the Senate is unpopular. There is no evidence that the House of Representatives is unpop- ular or that the Republican adminis- tration is unpopular or that the Re- publican party as a party is unpopular It may be a rather tenuous deduction, Out by Returns. commonest of sayings, both in Wash~ ington and throughout the country. Indeed, it is a common saying within the Senate itself. Senator Caraway of Arkansas, among other Senators, has said that he recog- nizes that the Senate is low In publie esteem. Senator Caraway though: that a partial explanation of it lay in a thing that he condemned, namely, the spec- tacle of certain Democratic Senators changing their votes on the tariff as part of a trade In which they got tariff benefits. While Senator Caraway named this as one cause for the disesteem of the Senate, some other Senators claim that a quite considerable contribution to the lowered regard in which the Sen- ate is held comes from the rather harsh and violent performances of the Sen- ate's lobby investigating committee, in which Senator Caraway is one of two | or three dominant figures. Senate Is Held Unpopular. Be that as it may, the central fact is that the Senate is unpopular. The statement is made occasionally in so many words, within the Senate itself. The same statement, or one having es- sentially the same meaning, is made very frequently in the Senate in a dif- ferent form. One day last week Senator Hiram Johnson of California was arguing for a postponement of Senate action on the naval limitation treaty. Among his rea- sons he said: “The members of the Senate, because of their fatigue after s0 many months’ work, are neither physically nor mentally in a condition wisely to legislate.” That statement or its equivalent is made over and over by Senators themselves. It is made with especial frequency by one of the two physicians who are Senators—@opeland of New York. Senator Johnson and Senator Cope- land and others who describe the condi- tion of the Senate in these words mean, of course, just what they say. They really think that the trouble with the Senate i= that it is tired. And the truth is the Senate is tired. It has rea- son to be tired. It has been almost adily in session since the first Mon= day in December, 1928—just 18 months. But a man who is tired is not neces= sarily for that reason unpopular. And what is true of a man is in this case true of an institution. Often a man who is tired wins for that reason the public sympathy. This is a familiar experience of public speakers. An audi- ence that likes a speaker because of what he is saying and because of his personality tends to give him added sympathy if it notices that he is tired. ‘The case of the Senate is too complex to be explained by saying merely that it is tired. What a Senator may de- scribe as fatigue may be in some cases a different thing, and the causes of fatigue are so bound up with the fatigue itself as to call for careful discrimina- tion if we are to find what the trouble Four Parties in Senate. ‘The Senate consists normally of two parties, but actually of three—four, if we include the one Farmer-Laborite, Shipstead of Minnesota, as a party,” Essentially Senator Shipstead is an in- surgent Republican. It is with..them that he commonly votes and ¢o-operates, There are 39 Democrats. They are & definite unit with permanent strength, though anywhere from 5 to 15 of them frequently vote with the Republicans on the tariff. { Then there are 56 Republicans—nom= inally. Actually, the 56 Republicans must be looked upon as two parties. ‘There are, roughly, 41 consistent and regular Republicans, and there are, roughly, 15 insurgent Republicans. The two groups compose essentially separate parties. There is more difference be= tween them in politics and more emo- tional rancor than commonly exists be- tween Republicans and Democrats. The insurgent Republicans hate the regular Republicans far more than they hate the Democrats. Indeed, the insurgent R:mlllbucm do not hate the Democrats at_all. Each of these three partles—regular Republicans, insurgent chubllcnn:fl:nd Democrats—has its own reason for be- ing tired, for being irritable, for being petulant and for being ineffective. And each of these groups contributes its own quota to the common pull of irritability, ineffectiveness and other qualities that make the Senate unpopular as a whole. Regulars Lack Power. ‘The regular Republicans are tired and irritable because they are in one of the most disagreeable of all possible situa= tions. They have responsibility without having power. They are supposed to be the majority party. They think of the country as looking to them to dominate and to legislate, and they realize that they do not dominate—and do not legis- late as they would if they were a ma- Jority party in the normal and effec~ tive sense. The Democrats, one would suppose, might be comfortable enough. They are the minority party and they ought to be able, comfortably and consistently, to live up to the role of an opposition party. But the difficulty with the Dem- ocrats, unconsciously corrosive to thelr spirits, is that they have allowed their role to be taken away from them. They have permitted their leadership to be seized by the insurgent Repub- licans, ‘The principal issue in this session of Congress has been the tariff. But who thinks of the opposition as being led by the Democrats? When the public reflects upon the fight against the tariff, do they think of it as having been led by the official Democratio leader, Senator Robinson of Arkansas, | or by Senator Simmons of North Caro- lina? Does not the public think of the opposition as having been led by one of the insurgent Republicans, Senator Borah of Idaho? Similarly, in the opposition to eon- firming President Hoover's appointees to the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Hughes and Judge Parker, who thinks of any Democrat as having led the op- position? Does not the public think of the fight as having been made by insurgent Republican Senator Norris of Nebraska or insurent Republican Sen- ator Borah of Idaho? Democrats Led Tariff Fight. ‘The flght in behalf of the Senate's version of the flexible tariff was actually led by Democrats and made by Demo- crats; but so common is it to think of the initiative as coming from the in- surgent Republicans that nearly every one supposes it was Borah who made this fight. In the attempt to inject the deben- ture plan into the tariff and the pre- a possibly too refined use of statistics to say, as a necessary result of these | figures, that the Senate is unpopular, | ‘whereas the House is not. And it may possibly be unsafe to conclude that the ins of the Democrats in the Novem- r election will be confined mainly tc the Senate, or that the Democrats wil! not win a considerable number of seat in the House. But the assertion that the Senate is gold_fringe Malllet | these. figures or on any figures, The fact unpopular does not need to rest on is as familiar as the weatherj num] ceding attempt to make the debenture plan a part of the farm relief bill, it was the insurgent Republicans who in- itiated the idea and made the fight. Actually, though the Democrats fol- lowed on this point the leadership of the insurgent Republicans, many of the Democrats did not believe in the deben- ture plan. Many of them voted for it, as they put it, “holding their noses.” And this has been a further contri- bution to Democratic discontent and irritability. Through accepting leader- rgents ship from Republican insu; (Continued on Third Page.)