The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-04-24

the league.
 Good bye, Senator" said Crawford. 'sThank you for calling. Please come again, soon, we are always glad to see you and to be of service"
 The senator was Edward R. Burke, democrat, of Nebraska, chief generalissimo of the op- position against the Presidents Supreme Court plan.
 Three years before, Franklin Roosevelt, addressing a political rally in Green Bay, Wis, read 9 quotation which he hailed as the best definition of the New Deal he had encountered. It read:
 "The New Deal is an old deal, as old as the earliest aspira- tions of humanity for liberty and justice and the good life. It is as old as Christian ethics. It is new as the Declara- tion of Independence was new and the Constitution of the United States. Its motives are the same. It recognizes that man is indeed his brothers keeper, insists that the labOror is worthy of his hire, demands that justice shall rule the mighty as we'll as the weak"
 The author of that definition was the same man seen emerg- ing from the Liberty League of fees in Washington Senator Edward R. Burke. During the interim he had become one of the most effective foes of the New Deal.
 Ardent New Dealer
 However, at the time Roosevelt repeated the definition of the New Deal at Green Bay, it's author had a highly interesting pro-New Deal history.
 He had been elected to the House from Nebraska in the first Roosevelt landslide of 1892. He had voted for every New Deal measure offered during his term as a representative. He had de- feated the redoubtable Governor Charles Bryan, brother of William Jennings, for the democratic sena- torial nomination because Bryan denounced the AAA. And he had campaigned for election as a 100 per cent New Dealer with literature urging, Keep the New Deal; It's the Squarest Deal We Ever Had," Support President Roosevelt by giving him an able senator like Edward R. Burke, WHO WILL WORK WITH, NOT AGAINST, OUR PRESIDENT"
 This was the first heard of Ed Burke in the national arena. It was the last heard of him as an administration champion.
 AbOut-Face
 Once elected to the senate, Burke staged an abrupt right about-face, voting against every major New Deal measure. He fought the Holding Company Bill, the Wagner Labor Disputes Bill, the Guffey Coal Act, and the 1885 and 1886 tax bills.
 Climaxing this kaleidoscopic career, Burke now is not only the chief brains behind the democrat republican alliance fighting the Supreme Court plan, but he is the coolest, most calculating fighter of all.
 Some of his cohorts, notably Wheeler of Montana, are jittery and anxious to run for cover if they can wangle some face-sav- ing concessions. Not Burke. He is irreconcilable. He not only is opposed to Roosevelt's bill, but to any tampering with the courts whatsoever.
 Mystery
 Burke's strange metamorphosis from rabid New Dealer to an equally rabid foe is one of the mysteries of Washington.
 No other member of Congress has undergone SO complete reversal of position and attitude in so short g time or apparently with so little cause. Nebraska is one of the most liberal States and the White House leaned over backward to court Burke's goodwill.
 Angry Administrationites whis- per that the reason for Burke's "treachery" is a desire to line up a profitable big-business law practice when he returns to pri- vate life. Burke's friends insist that the reason for his change of mind is an ingrained indeper- dence of thought.
 Whatever the cause, there Is EwS@ wwA