The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-03-06

Calif., 24 years
 Hiram W. John
 Edson son of Sa, Francisco, 25 years. Pat Harrison of Gulfport, Miss, 90 years. T, mention a few.
 It's Q good life - If you can ge reelected. No wonder they worl for these jobs, build fences bacl home 50 they can return to Wash ington in spite of all the battles the grief, the arguments, the de- mands of job-seekers, the boys tt take care of, the crackpots, tn, delegations, the lobbyists, the peo. pie they have to be nice to. Enougf to drive .:::st people nuts.
 Yet the man born to be a con. gresSman loves 1t. He'll fight like hell with some opponent on the floor. They'll call each other names and question their motives You'd think they'd stay mad for. ever. Yet when the debate is over they'll slap each other on the back in the cloak rooms, and talk about their lovely fight. They don't stay mad long. Maybe that's why they like the work.
 TROUBLES A BUBBLE
 AFTER A WHILE
 Take the case of Senator Pat Harrison of Mississippi. He's 60. Half his life has been spent in Washington. There are six men who have been in the Senate longer than he, but today Pat is president pro tempore; and whenever Vice. President Wallace Is away, Pat rules the roost. Also, he's chairman of the finance committee, and a mem Der of the foreign affairs and rules committees. That gives him enough to do.
 Yet troubles roll off his big, pink, bald head, of the fringe of gray hair, of the big rounded shoulders, and leave him outwardly unper- turbed. As he sits slouched ia his chair on the Senate floor or In his olace. vest open, hands clasped over his paunch, wide.eyed, slow.speak- ing, utterly relaxed, even lazy -look- ing, you'd think he didn't have a care In the world. Mass at rest. Two hundred pounds, six feet two, even when he stands stoop shoul- dered.
 He takes secret pride, though, in being known as the Mississippi fox. And in his early years in the Sen- AfA hA ARAA t& hM NA Had ttAa AHieela sippi gs Ely. Buzzin' round, worry. in people, fixin' things, schemin' and playin' politics.
 He has had SO many fights he can't remember them all. The battle over the Hull reciprocal trade agree ,nents was the most bitter. His battle against Barkley for Senate leadership, the most intense. His feud with his fellow Mississippian, Senator Bilbo, the longest.
 That began when Harrison sup- ported for federal government, a state judge who had once put Bilbo in jail for 10 days for contempt of court. The fight lasted six years. It cost Harrison the leadership, for Bilbo threw his vote to Barkley, who won, 38 to 37. The breach was healed only a year ago when the two men met by accident in an ele- vator and shook hands. This year, Bilbo seconded the nomination of Harrison for presidency of the Sen- ate, and the ax was buried.
 WHEN A SENATOR
 SHEDS HIS TOGA
 They get relief from this war of nerves in the same way as other people.
 Golf. Pat once won SIS in a foursome at dollar a hole with side ,bets and was told, Senator, you ought to earn your living some other way than by playing golf"
 Baseball. He's a Washington fan. He was considered for baseball commissioner when Landis got the job. The little finger of his right hand has the baseball break which he got as a semi-pro pitcher.
 Too old for those things now, when he wants real relief he goes to the movies and weeps over the sentimentality of a "Swanee River which he saw three times.
 He goes home. to a house on 43d street, to the wife who was his star pupil when he taught school at Leakesville, Miss. She calls him Patton" which is his real name Byron Patton Harrison. The Pat was assumed to win Irish votes, and it has stuck.
 Congressmen get called other things besides their nicknames. They change their minds or their positions. and that brings name- calling. Harrison voted for an anti third term measure in the Coolidge days-but he supported Roosevelt. He was whiplash when he fiayed extravagance in the Hoover admin- istration. but he supports many New Deal extrayagancies because of their social benefits. He still campaigns for economy. and for tax relief - and is called the friend of big bust.