The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-04-13
! . BEHIND THE SCENESI lN WASHINGTON ! -9V ROONEY DUTcHER-i
 Democrat Washington
 Correspondent
K Reorganization Bill Defeat Puts Senator Harrison
 And Rep. 0'Connor
 On Top Again

Washington, April 13-Pat Harrl- son of Mississippi sought the major ity leadership in the senate and John J. O'Connor of New York went after the same post in the house.
 They were ambitious to reach the highest points in their political ca reers. And in each case Franklin D. Roosevelt turned thumbs down. Harrison and O'Connor were too conservative for the New Deal.
 But they got there just the
 same. While the men whom the
 administration preferred to lead
 it's forces have pleaded desper-
 ateIy but impotently for Congress
 to stand by the president, liar
 rison and O'ConnCr have ap-
 peared conspicuously as leaders of
 a new majority in congress-the
 anti-RoOsevelt coalition.
 Both are popular and known generally as good fellows. So their recent triumphs have been enjoyed by many friendly colleagues who smarted with them when the ad- ministration in it's palmier days blasted their aspirations.
 Celebration
 After the historic defeat of the Roosevelt reorganization Dill, O'Connor had some of the core spondents, photographers and oth- CTS up to the sanctum behind the Rules Committee room and opened the door of an electric re- frigerator which contained cham pagne, whisky and beer. Per haps he wasn't thinking of the days of late 1886 when he and his cronies sat in that sanctum and had to mourn collapse of his carn- paign for the leadership. He had a right, however, to recall those days.
 An often turbulent, alternately
 gruff and genial, but keen-mind- ed, red haired Irishman OCOnnor had incurred New Deal wrath. When he opposed abolition of the Democratic two-thirds rule at the
 1886 convention and when, as chairman of the rules committee, he baked the White House desire for a record vote on the holding company bills death sentence"
 Administration propag andists made much of the fact that O'Con- nor's brother Basil had accepted a $25,OOO fee from the Associated Gas & Electric Go. during the holding company fight.
 Back on Top
 Although O'Connor did not rate the leadership through seniority, his chairmanship of the Rules Commit tee made him the third most pow erful leader in the House and it had been traditional that when South- erner-in this case Will Bankhead of Alabama-was to be speaker, the leader should be northerner.
 But the administration chose Sam Rayburn of Texas, who had piloted the holding company bill and other of it's legislation. Roosevelt persuaded Vice Presi- dent Garner to come to Washing ton before the session began and put Sam over. That was the end for O'Connor.
 But today O'Connor is still chairman of the Rules Committee the committee which stands in the way of wage-hour legislation. And it was O'Connor who led the anti-reorganization bill fight, pro- viding strength for the opposition which undoubtedly was responsi- ble for the bills burial. When the House voted down his first motion to kill the bill by g votes and it looked as if the measure would win, O'Connor said: "Therell be no reorganization bill passed" Pat Pleased, Too
 Meanwhile Harrison, still power full as chairman of the Senate Fi- nance Committee, was triumphantly steering through hte Senate a tax bill which wiped out practically the last vestige of New Deal experiment tation in the taxation field. Already Roosevelt and the House had bowed to pressure for drastic modification of the undistributed profits tax. Harrison insisted upon complete re- peal and on drastic revision of the capital gains tax.
 Long a Democratic leader and caustic critic of Republican ad- ministrations, Harrison had swal- lowed many New Deal measures in which he did not believe, meanwhile shaking the patronage plum tree with heavy hand.
 But when Roosevelt almost open ly expressed his preference for the relatively liberal Alben Barkley of Kentucky in the face of Harrison's s candidacy last year to succeed the late Floor Leader Joe Robinson and when Barkley won by single vote which White House emissaries wangled from Harrison at the last minute, then Pat ragged.
 He excOriated the wage hour
 bill, then maintained long silence,
 supported the reorganization bill
 because he believed in it and finally put through his tax bill
 with obvious gIee and further
 attack on administration policies over feeble protests from a Bark
 ley whose influence had long
 since declined.
 Pat and John may have smarted in the past when New Dealers scorned them as Tories" But they're feeling better than ever now.