Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-02-24
Mcclellan Kennedy Team Is Set
ForSeoson's Biggest Investigation
BY JAMES Y. NEWTON
and CECIL HOLLAND

By JAMES Y. NEWTON
and CECIL HOLLAND
The big Congressional investiga-
ton Of the season will get under
way this week under the direction
Of an effective though oddly
matched team Of probers.
The investigation is the long
heralded Senate inquiry into
charges of racketeering and cor
ruption in labor and industry. 1t
is expected to last about a year
and to touch just about every part
Of the country.
The investigative team is made
UP of Senator John Mcclellan,
an Arkansas Democrat. and youth
full Robert Francis Kennedy, a
Bostonian. The Senator will head
the select Senate committee of
four Democrats and four Repub-
licans set up to handle the racket
eering study. Mr.. Kennedy will be
chief counsel and the Senator's
strong right arm.
Senator Mcclellan, 81, is a
drawing Southern Baptist whose
sonorous voice, when raised in
righteous. indignation, is that of
an old-time circuit rider belaboring
the forces Of evil. A one-time
ploughboy whose formal schooling
ended in. the eighth grade, he
learned his law at his fathers
knee. BY :. a special act of the
Arkansas legislature, he was ad-
mitted to practice at the age Of
II. Through the years, as q young
lawyer. as a prosecutor and as a
member Of Congress. he has devel-
oped into smooth and articulate
politician of the Southern con-
sentative strain.
Expensive Background
BY contrast. the 31-year-old Mr..
Kennedy. received his education at
a fine and expensive Eastern prep
school, was graduated from Har-
ward. where he played end on the
varsity football team, and received
a law degree from the University of
Virginia Law School. The son of a
wealthy and distinguished Boston
Catholic family. he has never run
for public Office. His experience in
politics thus far has been limited
to managing the campaign of his
brother, Senator John F. Kennedy
Of Massachusetts,, and travelling
with Adlai Stevenson in the last
presidential campaign.
Senator Mcclellan and Mr.. Ken
nedy already have demonstrated
how effectively they can work to-
gether as chairman and chief coun-
sci, respectively, Of the Senate's
Permanent Investigating Subcom-
mittee.
Both are softspoken and even
with recalcitrant witnesses they use
a gentle approach, not usually as
ISOLATED with a successful investiga-
tor or prosecutor. But as numerous
individuals can testify, Senator Nc
Clellan can cross-examine with dev-
astating results a witness with
something to hide. And Mr.. Ken
nedy has shown many times in the
past two years that once he gets
his teeth into good case he doesn't
let 60.
By the nature Of congressional
committees, responsibility rests
largely on the chairman and his
chief counsel as a general rule.
So it has been that on the inves-
tigating subcommittee the burden
Of work has fallen on Senator
Mcclellan and Mr.. Kennedy. The
formal and informal inquiries con-
Quoted by the subcommittee during
the two years they have been guild
ing 1t have saved taxpayers millions
Of dollars and have caused the
departure from Government service
Of high officials who were under
investigation for possible conflicts
Of interest between their private
business affairs and public duties.
The latest Of these was Robert
Trip Ross, who resigned 10 days
ago as Assistant Secretary of
Defense.
Dotes Back to Mccarthy Dogs
The team OF Senator Mcclellan
and young Kennedy had its origin
In the tempestuous days when the
investigating subcommittee was
headed by Wisconsin's Senator
Mccarthy and its chief counsel was
Roy Cohn, central figure in the
Mccarthy Army hearings. In early
1854 Mr.. Kennedy became minority
Democratic) counsel for the sub
committee When the Democrats
won the 1854 congressional elections
and organized the Senate, Senator
Mcclellan displaced Senator McCar-
thy as the subcommittee chairman
and Mr.. Kennedy moved UP to the
position Of chief counsel.
Young Kennedy was McClellan's
own choice for the post, but not
without some misgivings on the
Senator's part. II was thinking of
a man Of more years and more
experience" he explains. However.
the tough-ninded chairman has
never had any reason TO regret his
decision.
Under the general guidance of
Senator Mcclellan and the active
direction Of Mr.. Kennedy, the sub
committee has avoided the fam
boyant spectacle of Communist
hunting which marked the McCar-
thy regime. Leaving this pursuit to
other congressional groups, the SUBJ
committee has concentrated instead