THE CONGRESS: In the Greatest Club

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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.