Volume 141

The Cares of a Majority

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S the time drew near for the assembling of Congress, the burden of anxiety upon the shoulders of the Republicans increased. They paid in those last few days before the opening of the session, as they will pay throughout the session, the price of supremacy. Their worries are manifoldand multiform. The Democrats, free from the burden of majority responsibility and with comparatively few problems to solve, have been "enjoying the show."

Perhaps the greatest of Republican worries grows out of the question of regularity-who are regular and what shall be done with those who are not? In the Senate this question pertains for the present almost exclusively to Robert M. La Follette, Jr., of Wisconsin. At first it was accepted as a foregone conclusion that he would be left outside the party fold. Then the Republican leaders had a change of heart, and for a time there. appeared to be general agreement that La Follette would be accepted without question. Finally, it developed that a number of stalwarts, Senator Butler, of Massachusetts, chief among them, were not reconciled to that course, and the question was still a sore one when the Senate met.

On the House side, where last spring a vote for the elder La Follette was made a flaming brand of party apostasy, the question of regularity was even more troublesome. The radicals were read out of the party in caucus last spring and the decision was reached to deprive them of their positions as Republicans on important committees. The danger of this course became apparent when the Rep resentatives began assembling in Washington for the new Congress, and half a dozen plans for avoiding it were made and abandoned.

Another organization job which the Republicans had to perform was less dangerous, but, perhaps, even more unpleasant. The conviction of Representative Langley, of Kentucky, for violation. of the Prohibition Law has been confirmed by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, and Langley has let it

December 16, 1925

be known that he will not appear at this session of Congress.

To return now to the upper chamber, the Republicans of the Senate found La Follette a cause of anxiety, but they found even greater cause for anxiety in another personage-Dawes! Nobody felt competent to predict what the VicePresident will do in his fight for revision of the Senate rules. But, even if they

International

Nicholas Longworth, elected Speaker

of the House

could have been assured that the General would keep quiet, the Senators were not certain of themselves. The Vice-President has "carried the fight to the people" in the States of a number of Senators who will be up for re-election next year. Many of these Senators are provoked, and it is thought likely that they cannot wholly resist the impulse to "haze" the Vice-President.

There is no hope of a revision of the rules at this session-at least not in a manner to eliminate filibustering. But the Vice-President has the support of Senator Underwood, one of the most commanding figures on the Democratic side, and of Senator Curtis, the Republi

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can floor leader. With their help he can make the fight uncomfortable for the ponderous majority.

The Air Board Reports

THE HE President, as a harmonizer of his own boards of inquiry, has made a "batting average of 500." He succeeded in securing a unified report from the Air Board. He failed completely, after longcontinued efforts, to secure anything like harmony among the members of the Muscle Shoals Commission, which submitted two reports as divergent as two reports could be, one signed by three and the other by two members of the Commission. The two reports of the Commission were withheld from the public for sixteen days, and the report of the Air Board apparently for almost as long for the purpose of inclusion of essential recommendations in the President's Mes

sage.

The recommendations of the Air Board show a gratifying breadth of comprehension of the real problems involved and a genius for arriving at solutions. The task of the Board, as was pointed out by The Outlook's staff correspondent at Washington when the hearings were concluded, was to piece together innumerable bits of opinion and half-fact into a homogeneous plan. This task was accomplished more completely than could reasonably have been expected. And. queerly enough, the result seems to be fairly satisfactory to almost everybody directly concerned. Army and Navy, apparently, are not only reconciled to, but positively pleased with the suggestions of change. These changes, moderate though they are, appear to be fairly satisfactory to the fliers themselves and to have dispelled already much of the discontent so long evident in that branch of the defensive service. Even the Mitchellites, though though not not positively pleased, realize that they gained something of what they have contended for.

Here is testimony to the efficacy of investigation properly made. At the beginning of the hearings the flying force, made up mostly of young men, was in a mood to demand everything and to ac

cept nothing short of the full total of their demands. Army and Navy boards, composed for the most part of men well along in middle age, were determined to concede nothing. But the one group has modified its demands for change and the other its insistence upon immobility. The investigations of the Board brought this about, mainly without realization on the part of those whose minds were modified that there had been any change in their attitude. Even the Mitchell court-martial proceedings, disorderly and inflammatory as they have been, have helped along with the process.

Divided as they were in opinion at the start, the members of the Air Board, by mutual accommodation, reached a unanimous conclusion.

Little Comfort for Mitchell

THE

HE Board completely condemns the Mitchell program in its main feature the establishment of a Department of Aviation co-ordinate with the Departments of War and Navy. It completely condemns also the alternative proposal of a unified Department of Defense with War, Navy, and Aviation as co-ordinate branches. It pooh-poohs the Mitchell bugaboo that any other country could effectively attack the United States from the air. It disposes peremptorily of that fine phrase, "flaming coffins." It finds that aviators have not been forced to fly under unnecessarily dangerous conditions. It gives no comfort to the sensational side of Mitchellism. But in its constructive proposals some of those who have supported Mitchell as a crusader will find substantial recognition of the rightfulness of their claims.

If the recommendations of the Board are embodied in legislation, or even in regulation, the causes of discontent on the part of fliers will be in the main removed. There would be an Assistant Secretary of War and an Assistant Secretary of the Navy and an Assistant Secretary of Commerce charged solely with duties pertaining to aviation. The Air Service would become the Air Corps and would have a larger measure of independence.

An air section, headed by a General Staff officer detailed from the Air Corps, would be established in each of the five divisions of the General Staff of the Army. There would be two or more flying brigadier-generals, one to be in charge of procurement and another of

training schools. Rank commensurate with command would be provided during the present shortage of field officers in the Air Service. Flying pay would be recognized as "permanent in time of peace" and arrangements would be made for insurance for fliers. There would be

a special aviation medal and ribbon for

unusual heroism either in war or peace.

On the Navy side officers specializing for long periods in aviation would not jeopardize their chance of promotion. Officers of the grade of captain, commander, and lieutenant-commander would be carried as extra numbers. Naval aviation would be represented in the office of the Chief of Operations and in the Bureau of Navigation. Any junior officer, when detailed to aviation duty for which a higher rank is proper, would be given temporarily the rank of captain, commander, or lieutenant-commander. Preference would be given Navy aviators for command of aircraft carriers and for other duties concerning aviation. In short, practically all of the points of friction would be sand-papered out.

Possibly of less interest, but certainly of more large-scale importance, is the portion of the report dealing with civil aviation. A Bureau of Civil Aeronautics would be established in the Department of Commerce. Provision would partment of Commerce. Provision would be made for active and persistent Government research in the field of aeronautic science. Expenditures would be made for the development of airways, fields, and other aids to commercial flying, and regulations would be made for co-operative-production effort between the Government and aircraft manufacturers.

A bill embodying the recommendations of the Board will be introduced by Senator Bingham and in the House by Chairman Parker of the Commerce Committee. But, despite the emphatic manner in which the Board condemned the proposal for a unified Air Service, there will be no lack of bills with that as their object. Senator Robinson, of Arkansas, Democratic leader, has announced that he favors the unification plan. This announcement, however, is not to be taken as an indication of anything like united Democratic support. The bill for creation of a unified Department of National Defense will be introduced in the House by a Republican, Representative Curry, of California. Party lines, it appears, will be practically obliterated so far as this issue is concerned. If reason pre

vails, these bills will not be allowed to obstruct the enactment of the greatly needed legislation embodying the Air Board's recommendations.

Still Bickering Over Muscle Shoals

T

HE Muscle Shoals Commission, which began its investigation in the latter days of March, developed conflicts of conviction that could not be reconciled. It is now evident, since he included recommendations from both in his Message, that the President in his efforts to reconcile them partially agreed with both.

The majority of the Commission recommended to the President that the Muscle Shoals plants be used in time of peace primarily for the purpose of fertilizer production, and only incidentally for the production of power to be sold to industrial users. The minority recommended the use of the plants primarily for the production of power, to be sold to consumers, and only incidentally and in a limited way for the production of fertilizer. It may be said that the majority submitted a report favorable to agriculture and the minority a report favorable to industry.

The majority would lease the property under suitable restrictions. But, doubting the possibility of finding the right kind of men to assume the lease, it recommends reluctantly, by its own statement-Government operation. It holds that Muscle Shoals is a necessary part of the equipment for National defense, the ownership of which should not be permitted to pass into private hands.

The minority favors the sale of the property under certain conditions. Until a sale is effected, it recommends operation under private lease for the production of electric current, to be sold to industrial plants. It would, however, set aside certain units which might be operated for the production of fertilizers. The two members who signed the minority report insist that the Muscle Shoals property will serve the purpose of National defense as well under private as under Government ownership.

Both reports, of course, will be considered by Congress in the enactment of a law. The President in his Message concurred with the majority that the property "ought to be developed for the production of nitrates primarily, and incidentally for power purposes." But he