The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1927-02-03
ay, February 8, 1927
Holding Balance Of Power,
Shipstead Enjoys Popularity
The Old Guard Republicans Are Smiling on
Minnesota's Senior Senator
BY L. C. Speers in New York
Times Magazine

Two whole. months ago old-line
Republican Senators still regarded
Henrik Shipstead as dangerous
radical" Now they call him
Henry"
The significance of this change
in attitude is found in the fact that
in all the history of Congress few
Senators have occupied such a
strategic position as the one which
Shipstead, Farmer-Labor Senator
from Minnesota, is likely to occupy
at the next session. The result of
the 1926 election makes it prob
able that he will hold a balance of
power in the Seventeen Congress.
If he should vote with the Repub-
icanS on measure on which
party lines were tightly drawn they
would carry the question 40 to
AZ. Should he vote with the Dem
ocrats the result would be .48 to
48, and Vice President Dawes
would be called upon to end the
deadlock.
81 have about arrived at the
conclusion that the best thing
can do is to hold caucus with N.Y.
self and find out just where am
going" Senator Shipstead re-
marked.
So it happens that Shipstead,
who came to the Senate on top of
the Farmer-Labor Party landslide
in Minnesota, which virtually
launched Secretary of State KEEL
logg upon a diplomatic career, is
now Henry to Old Guard Re-
publicans. They pat him on the
back. They spread the news where
it will circulate best that he is
certainly one fine fellow, even if
he did come to Washington tagged
with the red emblems of radicalism
and the Non-Partisan League. "
Before Senator Shipstead emerges
from his office these mornings he
rubs his hands vigorously to start
the circulation, puts on his hat
firmly and generates a broad, non
partisan smile. Then he sallies
forth to receive from his colleagues
his daily welcome.
A Different Greeting
cit used to be "Good morning,
Senator Shipstead." But now it's
Hello, Henry" and GLOW is the
gentleman from Minnesota this
morning?" or "Have you seen
Dawes?" or, perhaps, "How was
the White House breakfast ?"-
and so on. Mr.. Shipstead smiles
and shakes hands. Sometimes he
winks when an acquaintance not a
Senator happens to be near.
How different everything is from
what it was four short years ago!
AS follower of the late Robert
Marion La Toilette and as the
nominee of the Farmer-Labor
Party, Shipstead entered the arena
to fight for the Senate seat oc-
cupied at the time by Frank B.
Kellogg. 1t was a campaign that
Minnesotans of this generation
will not soon forget. 1t began in
a dead calm and ended like tor
nado.
As a result Shipstead came to
Washington, linked his arm into
that of old Knute Nelson, who had
fought hard for Kellogg; marched
down the Senate aisle, stood before
the then Vice President Coolidge
and was sworn in as junior Senator
from Minnesota. He did not look
the radical that he was advertised
to be. Instead, there appeared a
clean-shaven, well-educated, pleas
ant-nnannered young man who had
just celebrated his forty-second
birthday. He lost no time in let
ting it be known that he wanted to
get along with his colleagues and
that even if he was the first Farm
er-Laborite ever elected to the
Senate he had no intention of run
ming wild, legislatively or other
wise. He slipped quietly into his
seat and began to listen. He heard
LaFollette as he fired away at the
railroads and trusts in general.
He listened to "Jim" Reed, to
Borah, to Norris, and with what
these Senators said he generally
agreed. In other words, he was
against the Administration on
practically every major question,
and, so far as is known, he con-
tinues to hold the same views.
When the time came to assign
Shipstead to his place in the Sen
ate, Republicans put their heads
together and decided to give him
a desk on "our side" of the reser-
walton. A certain wise member
of the Old Guard, according to the
story, had a premonition that it
might need Henry" some day. He
explained that Shipstead wasn't
such bad fellow, anyway" Be
sides, it was pointed out, he did
not come to Washington cam
oufaged as Republican, but as a
straight out-and-out radical Pro-
gressive. So Shipstead took his
seat with the Administration
group.
But this was not all. Other
Senators of the majority began to
have visions of future embarrass-
ments. Frazier, another radical,
and Brookhart, who was a fire-eat-
er at the time, had just been elect
ed in North Dakota and Iowa, and
there was the shadow of Magnus
johnson from Minnesota. The late
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of
Massachusetts, is generally credited
with the designation of Shipstead
as member of the Committee on
Foreign Relations. This was one
of the few instances in history
where a Senator was named for