38-37

They had buried Joe Robinson down in Arkansas just three days before the Democrats of the U. S. Senate met to pick his successor as their leader--highest gift in their power. It was the first time Democrats had gathered for such a purpose since Dec. 4, 1923, when the late great Oscar Wilder Underwood's resignation took effect. Joe Robinson had then been chosen unanimously.

As 74 Democrats straggled into the great marble caucus room of the Senate Office Building, all knew that one of two members would be chosen--but far from unanimously. Since the hour Joe Robinson was found dead with a bound volume of the Congressional Record beside him, there had been fierce fighting for his job. Friends of the two men lobbied on the funeral train. President Roosevelt took sides. He wrote a letter to ''Dear Alben" Barkley which referred pointedly to the fact that Mr. Barkley was now Acting Leader. A worried afterthought was the President's assurance to Pat Harrison that he was neutral. Nobody was neutral. The issue was plain: Barkley & President Roosevelt v. Harrison & Friends.

When the 74 had taken their seats.* Senator Barkley, as Acting Leader, rapped lor order. Turning the gavel over to Senator Pittman, President Pro-temp of the Senate, Candidate Barkley took his seat with the others. The chairman appointed McKellar (a Barkley man) and Russell (for Harrison) to count the ballots. Senator Black, secretary of the majority conference, prepared to write them down. Carter Glass, oldest man in the Senate, offered his battered Panama for a ballot box. prompting New Jersey's Smarty Smathers, three months a Senator, to crack about secret ballots in a glass hat.

By One Vote. Senator Adams of Colorado walked forward, tossed the first slip of white cardboard into Carter Glass's hat. Andrews was second, then Ashurst, then Bailey.

Texas' Tom Connally rose to his feet. "Mr. President," he drawled, "we haven't nominated anybody yet. I therefore ask unanimous consent that we consider the Senator from Mississippi, Mr. Harrison, and the Senator from Kentucky, Mr. Barkley, as candidates." Seventy-four Senators snickered at this bit of superfluity. Chairman Pittman sang, "Without objection it is so ordered,'' and the voters resumed their trips to the table, one by one, until Burt Wheeler gingerly cast the last ballot. Senator Pittman banged his gavel: "The judges will count the votes." There were 75. "The judges will read the ballots."

"Barkley," shouted Judge Russell, as he drew out the first slip. "Harrison," barked Judge McKellar on the second. "Harrison."' "Harrison." "Harrison." "Harrison." "Barkley." "Barkley." "Harrison." "Barkley." Seesaw. Seesaw. When the vote reached 37-37 there was a pause and a dead silence. The final ballot looked "big as a quilt" to Candidate Barkley, who bit off his pipestem.

"Barkley."

Pat Harrison stood up and, like a sportsman, moved that the election be made unanimous, stepped over to congratulate his successful opponent. Senators rushed for the door. Theodore ("The Man") Bilbo was quick to claim credit for knifing his Mississippi colleague, but newshawks outside the door knew that Harrisonites had already discounted the Bilbo vote. They knew that patronage-seeking, porcine Bill Dieterich of Illinois had a better claim as the Man Who Ditched Pat Harrison. He had gone to Harrison before the caucus, withdrawn his promised support, claiming that too much White House pressure had borne upon him.

Split. The "Glass Hat'' quip was no idle one. Who voted for Harrison and who voted for Barkley was known as surely as if each man had written his vote on a blackboard. And in this division the Senate's 75 Democrats revealed their party split with far greater accuracy than in their final pell-mell rush to kill the Court Plan (see p. 11). To Harrison rallied some 25 conservatives plus a dozen staunch New Dealers who are fond of Old Pat, Senators like Herring of Iowa. Neely of West Virginia, Pepper of Florida. While Harrison carried some New Dealers, Barkley carried no non-New Dealers but found his support in Rooseveltians who trot along willy-nilly: Guffey of Pennsylvania. Ellender of Louisiana. Schwellenbach of Washington, Bilbo of Mississippi, Hughes of Delaware. McKellar of Tennessee. In other words, most Barkley votes were from first-termers who owe their positions entirely to their ride on the Roosevelt coattails.

Would it have been safer to leave the New Deal in the hands of popular Pat Harrison? Would it have been wiser to elect him. though not so abjectly obedient, than to risk revolt against a rubberstamp leader? Some observers found their answer last week when the Opposition confessed that Pat's potent political twin. Joe Robinson, had lined up ample votes to push through the Court Plan. The Plan died with Joe Robinson because many of those votes were personal pledges to Robinson, whose makers felt released when he was gone. Leader Barkley's new job lay plain before him, to win a following of personal admirers as well as political sheep.

New Leader. Strong of teeth, strong of back, Alben William Barkley bears some physical resemblance to Joe Robinson. Keynoter of the last two Democratic conventions, he is a better orator than Robinson but slower on his feet. His obedience to the President's dictates has never been open to question.*

A farm boy from Kentucky's dark tobacco section, Alben Barkley conventionally worked his way through college (Marvin College, Ky., Emory College. Ga., University of Virginia Law School), studied politics under William ("Judge Priest") Bishop, got himself elected prosecuting attorney of McCracken County. By 1913 he was in the House of Representatives, by 1927 in the Senate. His first term in the Upper House was notable for speeches favoring Prohibition. Later he flopped to the wet side.

Always a friend of Labor, Senator Barkley only recently took up such a patrician game as golf. Another heresy was his attendance at a recent cocktail party for Doris Duke Cromwell and her mother-in-law, Philadelphia's plutocratic Mrs. Stotesbury. He was the only Senator to show up.

*Alabama's Bankhead, the 75th Senate Democrat, was visiting his ailing wife at home, cast his proxy for Harrison.

A 76th Senate Democrat is expected as soon as Joe Robinson's seat is filled. Last week Arkansas' State Democratic Committee voted 1) to hold no primary, 2) to nominate Governor Carl E. Bailey for the vacancy. A Democratic nomination in Arkansas is usually as good as election.

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