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Six years ago Charles S. Ryckman, an editor of Fremont, Neb., won the Pulitzer Prize with an editorial arguing that the reason Nebraska regularly re-elected Norris was that through him it could take a slap at the East. Since then this idea has gained much currency, but unfortunately almost no Nebraskans subscribe to it. They do not mind political irregularity for they are themselves politically irregular, frequently electing Democratic Governors at the same time that they vote Republican in national elections. Senator Norris, who has never had a political organization at home, has generally a more powerful individual appeal. His insurgency and his opponent's anger nearly always make him a martyr. It began when he was deprived of all patronage for his revolt against Cannon (he still has none). His martyrdom has gone on year by year, with vituperative newspaper attacks and such follies as the regulars committed in 1930 when they tried to do him dirt by putting up a grocery clerk named George W. Norris to run against him in the primary. Under such circumstances there is seldom any difficulty for George Norris to convince himself and the voters that every election is a crisis in which sinister interests are striving to do him in. For George Norris on the stump does not shilly-shally about getting himself elected. Last autumn after fumbling for months with the idea of standing for re-election he went to the hustings, made as many as three to five speeches a day, filled about five-sixths of them with praise of Roosevelt as a practical Messiah, one-sixth with a personal appeal on the theme, "How can you turn me down if you believe in liberal Government?"
Nebraskans are quite willing to turn down George Norris' ideas upon occasion. Only last month, McCook held an election to decide whether to accept a PWA offer of $105,000, 45% of the cost of bringing in electricity from the Platte Valley Public Power & Irrigation Project, to replace power now supplied by Iowa-Nebraska Power & Light Co. McCook's voters turned it down by vote of 782-523. But McCook's voters will probably never turn down George Norris himself who, since he has just been reelected, cannot commit political suicide again until 1942 when he will be 81.
*This week on the day before the unicameral Legislature met, he published a book about it: The One-House Legislature, McGraw-Hill ($1.50).