Bilbo of the North

In recent decades the South has given the U.S. Senate more than its share of sub-minor statesmen of the Heflin-Bilbo stamp. But the South has competition. Last week the confirmation of Earl Warren as Chief Justice of the U.S. was being blocked by one man, the Bilbo of the North: North Dakota's Senator William Langer. As chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Langer, after weeks of delay, insisted on considering the charges in a handful of letters opposing Warren's appointment. Some of the letters are obviously from cranks, none of them contains any evidence to support charges. The charges run all the way from saying that Warren is a crook to a complaint that as governor of California he followed "the Marxist . . . revolutionary line."

Langer does not believe a word of these charges. He has known and liked Earl Warren for years, and even supported Warren for President of the U.S. The explanation of Langer's conduct lies in North Dakota politics--and very smalltime politics, at that.

Langer won Republican nominations for Senator in 1940 and 1946 over the bitter opposition of the regular North Dakota Republican organization. His support comes from the remnants of Non-Partisan League, a populist organization of which he is a leader. In his feud with home-state Republicans, Langer used to get considerable help from his close political friend, President Truman. He now wants to use his position as head of the Judiciary Committee to force the Republican Administration to give him a tight hold on all federal patronage in North Dakota.

So far, Bill Langer has no such hold. He was outraged when President Eisenhower appointed his old rival, ex-Governor Fred Aandahl, as Assistant Secretary of the Interior. He has been trying without success to get two of his followers appointed to the federal bench; the Justice Department does not think his men are qualified. Last week Langer blew up again when the Administration announced the nomination of four North Dakota postmasters. Three of the four, as it happens, are Langer followers, Non-Partisan Leaguers. But that was not enough. Langer bawled that he was not consulted in advance about the appointments; merely notified after the fact. His office issued a lordly statement: "Senator Langer says although he is the senior Republican Senator from North Dakota, he has not been consulted by the President . . ." He concluded that the nominations are "personally offensive to me"--a statement which, under the rules of senatorial backscratching, is enough to block confirmation of the four.

Langer's attitude in the Warren case is an extension of the patronage fight. Last week, presiding over his subcommittee, he cackled with glee and chomped his cigars (without removing their Cellophane wrappings). Enraged Republicans made no dent on Langer.

Deputy Attorney General William Rogers charged that one of Warren's accusers was a "completely unreliable Trotskyite" and another was "a fugitive from justice for perjury." Senator Knowland cried: "These charges [against Warren] are untrue ... I wouldn't submit a town marshal to this."

Langer, determined to use his nuisance leverage to win his patronage fight, went right on with a course of action that smears the Chief Justice of the U.S. and makes the nation a laughing stock.

He explained to a TIME reporter: "I'm the senior Senator from North Dakota, son. I've got to teach them something. What would you do if you were the senior Senator from North Dakota?"

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