Nebraskan Plan

Senator George William Norris, who, more than anyone else, may be called leader of insurgent Republicans, has grown stoical during his 13 years of high office. Inirritable Mr. Norris philosophically decided at the close of the last Congress that the details involved with the chairmanship of the Senate Agriculture Committee were irritating and asked to be relieved of that responsibility, though he would continue as a member. In all probability he will be succeeded by Senator McNary, author of the wrecked and wrecking farm relief bill.

Meanwhile Senator Norris, insurgent Nebraskan, contemplates again the worthwhileness of political life, the betrayals, the corruption, the callow honors. He recalls the "treason" his Progressive friends played him some years ago when they backed the Kenyon packer bill instead of his own packer bill. That day he collapsed in the Senate. Since, he has remained inexcitable over the rehashed chatter, begun by Mr. LaFollette in 1924, to give U. S. politics another Progressive orientation. Feeling that most of the institutions they are combating are as firmly embedded as ever, he now, as in 1924, turns toward the recourse of soft-tempered satire, rather than madcap denunciation of the Regulars.

A good debater, a good lawyer, industrious, the Nebraskan is distinguished mostly for his courage. He has not thought anything worth stooping for. Two years ago he was re-elected despite the fact that he did not leave Washington for his campaign, utter a speech, spend a penny. Homely, "dish-faced" some describe him--he has acquired a prestige which doubtless surprises him.

Gaily he last week horrified somnolent Republican vacationists by a manifesto. He offered a simple Western method for excising the putridity of the Pennsylvania primary.

He suggested simply, that the citizenry of Pennsylvania scratch their traditionally Republican tickets and transfer their support to a Democrat. Such melodrama in Pennsylvania is unheard of, for since 1875 not one Democratic Senator has been returned from that state, and ordinarily none but a Republican has a chance even in his own opinion. But Mr. Norris sensibly pointed out that the cheapest and least embarrassing way for the old party to save itself the awkward task of removing Mr. Vare (who won the $3,000,000 primary campaign) is not to elect him next November. Mr. Norris' plan of political surgery was the more happy because, oddly, the Democratic nominee happens to be a man of some note--William Bauchop Wilson, onetime Cabinet member under Woodrow Wilson, and the first Secretary of Labor in the U. S.

In Iowa a little more than a year past Mr. Brookhart was nominated by the Republicans for Senator. "There was no question about the regularity or honesty of his nomination," said Norris. "But he showed an independence of action that displeased the Republican party leaders, and they called on the people of Iowa to vote for the Democratic nominee." And a Republican majority in Congress gave the seat to the Democrat, when Republican Brookhart's election was contested. If Republicans scratched Brookhart for radicalism, should they scratch Vare for vote-buying? Especially, when the Democrat is a most honorable man.

Mr. William Wilson made a favorable impression in the House while serving from 1907 to 1913, during which time he drafted a bill to create a Department of Labor. On its being established in 1913 President Wilson appointed him its first head. At an early age William Wilson had been employed in the Pennsylvania coal mines where his father, a Scotch immigrant, also worked. Eleven years discovered William a sturdy member of the labor union; 26, president of the District Miners' Union; 38, Secretary and Treasurer of the National Union of Miners (1900). Fortunate in a "common school education," honesty, efficiency, he entered Congress; but now is embarked on the business of agriculture. His pre-congressional career is reminiscent of that of Secretary ("Iron-puddler") Davis, of the Department of Labor.

Whatever the free and self-governing Republican voters of Pennsylvania may ultimately decide to do, it is clear that Senator Norris by his words and Mr. Wilson by his appropriate presence, have placed an inescapable bump in the path of Pennsylvania consciences.