Chair-Pullers

Oregon's falcon-faced Repubican Maverick Wayne Morse figured that in the 82nd Congress he deserved a seat on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He had been after it since 1946, and had lost out in 1949 because the Democratic majority had denied Republicans a sixth seat on the committee. But in organizing the 82nd Congress, Republican leaders apparently had other plans.

The New York Times front-paged a story quoting "the most competent authority" on the subject as saying that the Republicans would probably pick someone other than Morse for the seat. The unnamed "authority" was obviously Mr. Republican himself, Ohio's Robert Taft. He indicated that party leaders considered Fair-Dealing Wayne Morse a Republican in name only, and would rather choose Californian William F. Knowland, unrelenting critic of Dean Acheson, and at the moment, off on Formosa breakfasting with Chiang Kaishek. Morse had stood with Michigan's Arthur Vandenberg in support of most of the Administration's foreign policy, but Vandenberg was ill and presumably unable to exert his dominance over G.O.P. foreign policy.

Wayne Morse carried the fight into the open. He called a press conference, and read a letter written right after the election: "I should say the path is now clear for you to cash your I.O.U. on a seat in the Foreign Relations Committee," it said. "If I succeed in returning in January, which I expect to do--at least on limited terms --I shall be entirely comfortable and happy to see you in this committee post." It was signed "Arthur H. Vandenberg." Morse added that he would use his seniority over Bill Knowland to claim the committee spot.

But by the hoary gentlemen's club rules of the U.S. Senate, if Wayne Morse could pull rank on Bill Knowland, there were eleven Republican Senators who could do the same to Morse. The group included such Administration scourges as Bob Taft himself (although he preferred to stick with the Finance and Labor committees*), Nebraska's intractable Kenneth Wherry and Michigan's Homer Ferguson. Ferguson, apparently eyeing the Foreign-Relations seat for himself, spent part of the week bobbing ostentatiously around the U.N. Out of this roster, Republican leaders were sure they could pick a man to pull the seat out from under eager Wayne Morse, and pop into it before he picked himself off the floor.

*Under congressional rules, each Senator is limited to membership on two committees.

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