The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1937-07-14

no change. Who IN the Gays OF
his ascendancy-andw what a time
for a man to die!-strode the stage
of his times with the same direct
ness, the same rockbound devotion
to duty, the same undertaking dig
nifty, lightened by a rich ap-
probation of humor, which
marked his rise from the ranks.
In his latter days Joe Robin
son mellowed and matured. That
was all.
Sincerity was the keynote of
his character. In his nature
there was no guile. In him the
arts of the courtier found no
place. He was not the kind of a
man who could be won over by
flattery, nor was flattery one Of
his own weapons, except when
touched with wit.
Old Fight Recalled
Down on the Senate floor his
colleagues knew "you could do
business with Joe Robinson" I
remember a certain fight over the
immigration law. The hyphen-
ates were trying to weaken it.
Unemployment even then was
creeping over the country. Tech
biological changes in industry
were displacing human labor with
machines. There was no need
for new increments Of Europe's
Immigrants. Beyond that,
America, in the aftermath Of the
war, was beginning at long last
to become a single people.
It was not Joe Robinson'S
fight to save the law-to prevent
the vote seekers from breaking
down its barriers for their own
advantage. The leadership was
across the aisle, on the Republi-
can side. But Joe Robinson de-
livered the votes required to hold
the hyphenates in check. Most
of them came from what was
then the Democratic minority.
Joe Robinson could lose his
temper grandly. He had temper
which famed. Sometimes it got
away from him. But usually it
simply sharpened his tongue, &C
celebrated the processes of thought,
and gave to his indignant utter
anceS the fury of the storm. He
was one of the few men on the
Senate floor-one Of two, as I re-
call it, the other being Carter
e GlaSs-who could and did deal
effectively with Huey Long, the
Peck's Bad Boy of the Senate, the
thorn in its tender flesh. When
Joe Robinson got through with
his verbal rawhiding, Huey knew
he had been whipped.
Bonus March Incident
There was a night, too, WHEN
the bonus army was in Washing
ton. At the Capitol the lights
burned late. The lantern in the
dome. signaling the city that the
legislators were still in session.
drew thousands of desperate men
to the Capitol steps. They
crowded even to it's doors, and
were massed by the thousands in
the plaza below the Senate steps.
It was the night the Senate voted
down the bonus army'S demands.
It was a tense moment in Amer
tca's history. There was talk OF
force, of revolution. Senator
Elmer Thomas of Oklahoma had
made what more conservative col.
leagues regarded as a dangerously
tnflammatory speech. Several
other Senators has spoken in sim
liar vein, supporting the bonus
army's program.
Joe Robinson arose from his
seat and walked into the marble
corridor back of the rostrum. It
was no time for hiStrionicS. 1t
was a time for grim-lipped action.
Robinson, on his side of the aisle,
and Charley McNary, on his, were
holding the lines intact against
the assaults of the leftists. But
once off the Senate floor the fight
ing man from Arkansas exploded.
Striding over to group OF Sena-
tors gathered about couch, smok-
ing and chatting, he barked:
"Any man who would make a
speech like that at time like
this ought to be sent to coventry
by his colleagues. Don't they
know we are sitting on a key of
dynamite? And by that 1
mean"
ASSAILS SPEECHES
And he proceeded to name Sena-
tor Thomas and the others whose
appeals to passion and prejudice,
as he saw it, were the sparks
which might blow American civil
ization to SmithereenS.
At the luncheon table or in
drawing room Joe Robinson was
a delight. His stories were rich
without being racy. But his con-
versation, as his eyes crinkled at
the corners and his lined face be-
came luminous, drew men to him
wherever he happened to be.
Essentially he was a mans man.
There was not an effeminate note
in him.
Joe Robinson was one of the
few men in Washington who could
and did wear spats without SEEM
ing foppish. Somehow you got the
impression that he did it co keep
his ankles warm. Certainly no
man intent on building reputa-
ton as a Beau Brummel-and Joe
Robinson always dressed well,
oven though his clothes did get