APPOINTMENT OF SENATOR

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19803, 16 December 1929, Page 15

APPOINTMENT OF SENATOR

UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES REVEALED. (OKITBD PRBSS ASSOCIATION —BT BLECTMC T*X.KO»A?H—COPTKIGHT.) WASHINGTON, December 13. A most curious combination of circumstances reached a climax when Joseph Grundy was sworn in as a Senator from Pennsylvania. Recently a Senatorial investigation in national lobbying for tariff rates has been in progress. Mr Grundy is the arch-lobbyist of the United States. He appeared before the Committee and proudly and without reservation admitted t.hi a . During the same time the Senate had the Vare case, cabled, before it. Mr Grundy was one of the principal characters in the Vare drama. The hearing produced evidence that Mr Vare had spent £150,000 in 1926 to obtain primary nomination for Senator of Pennsylvania; his opponents, of whom Mr Grundy was financial backer, also spent £360,000 to get the nomination for one of their men. The Senate refused to give the seat to Mr Vare on the grounds that he had spent too much money. The law provides that the Governor of a State has the right to appoint a Senator to fill a vacancy such as was created by the rejection of Mr Vare. Governor Fisher has appointed Mr Grundy, who obtained or contributed £BO,OOO to his campaign fund. This appointment is perfectly legal, and the best constitutional lawyers are compelled to say that Mr Grundy's appointment could not be attacked. Thus the Senate had thrown out a man for spending £150,000, and was forced to aceept in his placo a man who represented an expenditure of £360,000.