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Since early in December, businessmen have been flooding Senator Harrison with mail and messages to establish friendly relations with the next chairman of the Finance Committee. Few of them really had anything to fear from him. On taxation he opposes a Federal sales tax (though his own Mississippi has a State one), is inclined to go to the income-tax-paying class for more revenue. A vociferous foe of Republican protection, he is a red-hot supporter of President-elect Roosevelt's reciprocal tariff scheme. Under his chairmanship Industry can expect deep cuts in its protective rates but Agriculture will be kept well inside the wall. On War debts he is relatively open-minded, except in the case of France. Once, traveling in Europe, he was stopped at the French border and fined for trying to smuggle a box of cheap cigars. A Dry turned Wet, he expects to raise large sums from the legalization of liquor.
And Colleagues. The new Senate in which Senator Harrison will be the leader on Government finance is composed of 59 Democrats, 36 Republicans, one Farmer Laborite. At the head of the Chamber, with Vice President Garner on the rostrum to help him steer, will be Arkansas' ruddy, rugged Joseph Taylor Robinson who has gamely forgotten his own unsuccessful run for the Vice-Presidency in 1928. For all his red-faced bellowing Leader Robinson is at heart a level-headed conservative who will do his utmost to keep the Roosevelt legislative program on the track. The same quick temper which once set him fighting on a Washington golf course is Leader Robinson's greatest handicap in uniting his followers.
Committee personnel will depend upon which Senators President Roosevelt picks for his Cabinet. Virginia's Glass having refused the Treasury, he will remain. The drafting of Montana's Walsh, and Tennessee's Hull would not only weaken the Democratic leadership on the floor but also strip the committees on Judiciary and Finance, respectively, of their strongest members.