The Daily Alaska empire., 1937-08-02
THE NEW SENATE FLOOR LEADER

THE NEW SENATE FLOOR LEADER When many of us think of Alben w. Bark le new Senate floor leader who succeeded the oseph Robinson we recall the man who keyno le Chicago Democratic convention in 1892 and hiladelphia convention last year. Those who fol oliticS closely think of him as a Democratic orse through the years. But there are many otl lterestng things about the new Senate major ader and Cal Tinney, who has known him for yes Ills about them entertainingly in one of his rec olumns in the Philadelphia Record. Says Repor inney:
 I might kind of dread Alben w. Barkley's stepping into the place of Democratic floor leader of the Senate. Old Alben is just bound to win his way into our graces. In few years time he will have us loving him, and when the time comes for him to adjourn himself to the world after this it will be hard to take.
 They can't dispense with the office of Senate Democratic floor leader, however, and as long as someone must fill it, Alben will
 Not that he will get exclted either way. Alben is an eX-resident of Paducah, Ky. (the town that gave Irwin s. Cobb to the world ana never TegretIeu lt-SellulS Tlu Ol lliIl, l mean), and though Paducah is in the mint julep belt, the Senator is dry. So he won't even have drink should the floor leadership come his way.
 We'll have smoke then, Alben, over your possible election Mo- he doesn't smoke, either. -~.A..s..t
 He's in good health-a big husky hombre with the thickest neck outside a wrestling Ing His hands are of Paul Bunyan size, and he has feet to match. He has feet so big that it often happens, when he is driving car that he is pushing down on the brake and the clutch at the same time.
 Alben golfs little bit, but not enough to corrupt his morals.
 He reads, but not enough to ruin his po- iitical sex appeal when he hits the Kentucky crossroads at campaign time. Incidentally, he can make more speeches than any bellows lunged politico in that country out there. Five speeches a day is sheer dilly- -dalying to him. Even 10 comes short of giving him workout. But Is will satisfy him; he can do with IS.
 I guess you remember this Paducah Poloni- He the Democrats keynoter both at their Chicago Q932) convention and at Phila- dephia a year ago. Boy, after he built fire under Hoover and then struck match to it. at the Chicago convention the Democrats couldn't turn down an opportunity to hear him again.
 Here's bit from that oration he split the air with at Chicago: We've got to remove a shroud and don the garments of life and hope We meet to fulfill an appointment with destiny. We must by major operation re- move from the body of our nation the dead flesh and decayed bones resulting from l2 years of Republican quackery."
 I heard him last year when he faced the Philadelphia convention and took up on yxher he left
 He writes his speeches Even those little, impromptu things he gets up the floor of the Senate and says sometimes he sat up the night before in his study, and pecked out on the typewriter while his family tried to gather some sleep.
 By family I mean Mrs. Barkley the former Dorothy Brewer of Paducah, and the boy and girl that are still at home Their married daughter, the wife of naval officer, was her papa's secretary the last heard
 The Senator's social tastes are simple. If he gets to take in a dance of the Kentucky State Society, he thinks he has had high old time
 I don't know what he does at that affair besides dance. He doesn't tell stories Irving S. Cobb seems to have cornered that talent when they lived together in Paducah.
 And I won't insist they ever lived there at the same time Irwin left early, yaluing his life, and Alben blew in there maybe later, be- cause he was born over in Graves county November 24 lS7D, and got his schooling at Clinton, Ky.
 Alben's parents were farmers, but the boy hankered to follow law So after the Clinton period he was at the University of Virginia, waiting tables and soa1ing up Blackstone.
 In 1901 the Kentucky authorities licensed him as lawyer, and the first thing you know he was taken into the Faducah law office of Judge W. s. Bishop, prototype of Irwin Cobb's Judge Priest"
 In 1905, after a mueback campaign, he was elected County Prosecutor. By the horse and buggy route he captured Judgeship in 1909 and three years later with an automobile he won seat in Congress.
 He looks longingly at airplane once in while. thinking it might put him in the White House.
 As Senator which he's been since 1926 he looks out for Kentucky coal and anything else his State produces including tobacco Generally speaking he's against tariffs; only when it comes to something mined or grown by his constituents is he for them.
 He attracted attention in l930 for being