Evening star., 1938-06-19
Personalities.


Death and politics played hand in re-
casting the list of leading figures on the
Capitol stage
When the veteran ma jority leader, Sena-
tor Robinson of Arkansas. died at the
height of the Supreme Court battle last
summer it precipitated a spirited contest
IN which the Democrats divided so evenly
that Senator Barkley of Kentucky, favorite
of the New Dealers, nosed out Senator
Harrison of Mississippi for the leadership,
80 to 81. And. as he returns to the Blue
Grass region he is again the center of q
lively race for denomination against Ken
tucky's Gov Happy" Chandler And Sen
ator Harrison. by deed and words showed
plainly enough cooling off toward strict
New Dealism.
Senator Robinson's fatal illness overlook
him just as he was believed to be in line
for elevation to an impending vacancy on
the Supreme Court, which would have
climaxed long public career in House and
Senate and as Governor of his State Was
his heart ever in the court fight? When it
stopped, the fight was over.
month later the Supreme Court ap-
pointment was given to Alabama's Senator
Hugo L. Black, New Dealer of New Dealers.
who. as chairman of the Education and
Labor Committee, had started the wage and
hour bill on its journey through Congress.
In the House the Seventy-flfth Congress
also brought a new headliner into the
cast, when the Southern entry, Repre-
sentative Sam Rayburn of Texas won the
hoor leadership over New York's Repre-
sentative John O'Connor Was O'Connor
left smarting in defeat? His leadership
later on, cost the New Deal defeat second
only to defeat of the court plan.
In the closing months of the Congress
Wisconsin's young Progressive, Senator Bob
La Toilette, also took on more prominent
role. as he and his brother. Gov, Phil
La Toilette, began to talk of third party
for 1910. Although bearing the separate
party label of Progressive" the Youthful
Senator has been as close to the New Deal
and as active in its support as any Demo-
crat, and this fact has given added zest
to wide range of speculation over the
effects of the embryo new third party
movement and where it is heading.
Another outstanding figure in the parade
OF the Seventy-f1fth's leading personalities
Is Montana's tall, hard-hitting Burton K.
Wheeler. This sturdy Westerner has been
carrying the torch of the liberal cause for
many years, but has found himself unable
to go along with some Of the New Deal
tenets
The same spirit of independence that
made him the vice presidential nominee
on the third party ticket of the elder
Senator La Toilette in 1924 was reflected
IN his leadership during the past year of
the opposition to the administrators
Supreme Court plan, and to the transfer
sof broad powers from Congress to the
Executive over expenditures and reorgani-
zation. OF all the men achieving new
prominence in the Seventy-fifth Congress,
Wheeler of Montana took the largest share.
In the New Deal camp Senators Minton,
Democrat, Of Indiana and Schwellenbach,
Democrat, of Washington forged to the
front during the past two years as leading
defenders Of the administration and its
policies on every occasion. They never
disagreed
Although a member of the Senate less
than two years, Iowas tall, genial Senator
Gillette was catapulted into new promi-
nence when he won denomination in the
Democratic State primary against Repre-
sentative Otha Wearin, who contended he
was the administrations choice.
What made the battle hot and the figures
prominent was this: Senator Gillette was
y not supporter of the court plan last year.
Was he, with other Democratic Senators
who did not support the plan, marked for
political death by the administrator
hatchet men? Harry Hopkins, w. P. A.
administrator and dispenser of billions for
relief, came out for Wearin. Were relief
money and pressure by administration re-
lief officials to be used to defeat Gillette?
That question was raised in the Senate
and applied by indirection to other con-
tests in the primaries this year in which
Senators who did not support the court
plan are pitted against more loyal New
Dealers. But the result in Iowa lost to this
issue some of its apparent Importance.
For Senator Gillette won
On the Republican side of the aisle,
young Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of
Massachusetts,, working quietly, speaking
only when he has something definite to
offer, gave indication during the recent
Congress Of becoming an effective member
OF the minority. His grandfather was a
distinguished member of the Senate Is
years ago. In the special session last De-
cember young Senator Lodge gave admins
tration leaders an uncomfortable few weeks
when he proposed writing a prevailing wage
requirement into the slum-clearance hous-
ing bill.
Having espoused the same principle IN