The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1937-07-19
BARLEY ROSE
FROM POVERTY
ON FARM
BY EARL GOODWIN

lucky!
Louis Brownlow, once District
Commissioner. but IS years ago
managing editor of Urey Wood
sons Paducah (Ky) paper, the
News.Democrat, picked Alben to
run as county judge He did it
with Urey's o. K. But that was
the step that led Barley to Wash.
ington-the step that may make
him majority leader of the Senate.
And his hip-hip-hurrahing friends
say that if he gets that post-the
White House next.
The man whom the President
addresses as Dear Alben" and on
whom the President now leans in
the toughest fight the Senate has
seen in a lifetime, came to Wash.
ington March 4, 1913, the same
day Franklin Roosevelt came as
assistant secretary of the Navy in
the Wilson Administration.
Poor Country Boy
Barley had been a country boy;
q poor boy. son of poor farmer
who remained poor and died poor;
Alben worked hard on the farm
and by some SORT of privation the
family Scraped the lad through
school and colleges until he had
enough education and law to work
in a lawyers office in Paducah =.
That lawyer, too. was impecuniouS.
The young Barley worked as a
Stenographer for this lawyer 10
months at $12 month-and
went Is months before he col
lected any of that. Then the law.
yer got fee-and Barley got
$3.50.
But those were pleasant days
in and about Paducah, which was
getting a New York reputation
through the writings of Irwin
Cobb. whom Louis Brownlow sue
ceeded as managing editor on
Urey Woodsons paper. (Mr.
Woodson is now chief of the
Bureau of Alien Property
Country Attorney
Barley served as county at.
torney four years at $1,000 year;
then he ran for county judge and
made the grade and sat on the
bench several years. All the time
he was becoming a natural Pro
greSsive-he was against the corpo-
rationS, the railroads, the banks.
He was a Methodist and a bone
dry-and worked hand in glove
with the Anti-Saloon League in
the fight of that organization to
make the Blue Grass and Mint
Julep State dry, county by county.
He was a dry because the drys
had the country folks on their
side and the corporations on the
wet side. Kentucky, home of
whiskey and horse racing, was
the scene of one of the rareSt
political fights before it went com.
pletely dry-and Alben Barley
helped make it so.
Succeeded James
Well, the big man-big in every
sense of the word-in that section
was the late Ollie James. A
giant in stature, weighing more
than 300 pounds, and a giant in
politics, he represented that dis.
trict in the House for yearS-and
then went to the Senate The
corporations were glad to get rid
of him, and they tried through
conservative politics in the Blue
Grass to pick a safe and sane sue.
cessor, but Barley was ararin',
fighting, tiger-like Progressive at
that time-and he succeeded
James Meantime the editor
who picked him for county attor-
ney was just about ready to be
made Commissioner of the Dis.
trict of olumbia-Louis Brown.
low.
Not many years later. not more
than five years, one Saturday aft.
ernoon when the city Congress
men had gone home on their regu.
lar weekend visits to Philadel.
phia, New York, Boston, ETC., the
innocent looking and thoroughly
effective Mr.. Barley bought up his
bill to make the District of Co
lumbia dry as dust 1t was a
surprise move-the vets in Con.
greSs thought they had the Bark.
ley bill for prohibition in the Dis.
trict of Columbia, blocked. So
they had-but they had gone
home.
Surprise Victory
So the bill passed. 1t passed the
Senate through the ministrationS
Of Sheppard of Texas. And few
people recall at all that the au.
thor-ship of the Eighteenth amend.
ment was not merely Senator
Morris Sheppard, of Texas, but
that his proud coauthor was Al
ben Barley, rising young House
member from Kentucky. Barley
was a sincere dry; he did not
drink-at that time. But he was a
dry because prohibition at that