Primaries in five States last week added to the makings of the 72nd Congress to be elected next November. Results:
Nebraska. For two years Republican conservatives have waited to punish Senator George William Norris, No. 1 Republican insurgent, for his endorsement of Alfred Emanuel Smith in the 1928 presidential campaign. Denouncing Norris as a ''no-party man" because of his continuous attacks upon the Hoover Administration, they put up William H. Stebbins, onetime State treasurer, as the party's '"regular" Senatorial candidate. Senator Norris defended his party bolt on the ground that "events at Washington have cleared me of criticism."
Last week Nebraska Republicans renominated Senator Norris handsomely over Mr. Stebbins. Senator Norris' campaign cost $2,620. Contributors: $200 from himself, $1,000 from Republican Senator Bronson Cutting of New Mexico; $1,000 from Mrs. Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania; $500 from Judson King, Washington liberal. In the November election Senator Norris, a Dry, will face Gilbert Monell Hitchcock, Wet conservative Democrat, once (1911-23) potent Senator from Nebraska who vainly led the Wilson fight for Senate ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. Would the national G.O. P. organization in Washington support Senator Norris as the party nominee? Senator Simeon Davison Fess, Republican National Committee chairman, said it would. The White House, in a well-muffled voice, said it would not, spoke of Senator Norris as a "traitor." To oppose Republican Governor Arthur J. Weaver, renominated. Democrats chose Charles Wayland ("Brother") Bryan, onetime (1923-25) Governor of Nebraska, a man who once upon a time (1924) ran for the Vice-Presidency.
Alabama. With Senator James Thomas ("Tom-Tom") Heflin who mortally fears and hates the Roman Pope, legally barred from the Democratic primary because he bolted the national ticket in 1928, Demo- crats last week nominated for the Senate John H. Bankhead, Jasper attorney, son of the late Senator John Hollis Bankhead, uncle of voluptuous, London-petted Actress Tallulah Bankhead. The defeated candidate: Frederick Ingate Thompson, Mobile publisher. Judge Benjamin Meek Miller, anti-Klan, won the regular Democratic nomination for Governor. Senator Heflin, who plans to run as an independent Senatorial candidate in November, urged his friends to keep away from the polls last week. The State's normal Democratic primary vote of over 200,000 was reduced to less than 150,000. Heffled Senator Heflin when he read the returns: "You can just bet I'll feast on John Bankhead's bones next November."
Arkansas. Opposed for the first time in twelve years, Senator Joseph Taylor Robinson, Democratic leader of the Senate, was criticized for being too "Smithish" in 1928 when he was the party's vice-presidential nominee, too "Hooverish" in 1930 when he was a U. S. delegate to the London Naval Conference. These mixed charges balanced each other nicely and Senator Robinson secured renomination (tantamount to reelection) over Tom W. Campbell, Little Rock attorney, in a 3-to-1 victory.