No-Man's Norris

Did Herbert Clark Hoover telephone twice during the Kansas City convention to George W. Norris of Nebraska, the most Insurgent Republican Senator of them all, and ask him to be Number Two Man on the Hoover ticket? Did Senator Norris refuse, and did Senators Howell of Nebraska and Brookhart of Iowa then call on Senator Norris and beg him to reconsider? And did Senator Norris then refuse a third time? Such were the stories told last week in Omaha by one Mat Greevy and the Omaha World-Herald. Newsgatherers considered the stories so improbable that they did not bother to seek denial or confirmation from busy Nominee Hoover, whose door is guarded by a chubby secretary and the expletive: "A lot of foolish nonsense!" (see LETTERS.)

Whether or not he thrice refused a coronet, George William Norris did not announce last week. But he announced something else. He said he was hopeless of a Third Party ticket this year. He said that the Issue was the Power Trust. He said he favored non-partisan support of "progressive" Congressional candidates this year, regardless of party ticket. He assumed that "nothing new will transpire in the Presidential contest." Hence the thing for "progressives" to do is to increase their balance of power in Congress and as soon as possible amend the Constitution to provide for direct popular election of the President and Vice President, "obliterating the useless and antiquated Electoral College." All this Senator Norris set forth in an open letter to a California friend, by way of letting people know that he was clambering on no man's bandwagon.