(3 of 5)
Robert Marion La Follette, chubby and dressy, of Wisconsin, who cheerfully follows his father's credo without half of his father's fire. "Economic injustice" is his chief cry. An experienced parliamentary troublemaker, he blurts criticism of President Hoover. He does much legislative homework.
John James Blaine of Wisconsin, a big, heavy-handed La Follette follower whose booming inanities sometimes even make the Insurgents wince in shame.
Smith Wildman Brookhart, chunky, unbrushed, of Iowa, who loudly supported Herbert Hoover in 1928 only to denounce him just as loudly in 1929. Originator of many a tricky farm relief proposal, he affects unpolished manners, shuns a dress suit, shoots a marksman's rifle, suffers a nervous twitching of the face. Recently he has abandoned the pretense of an appalling ignorance.
Gerald Prentice Nye of North Dakota, who has changed from a young smalltown editor with a plumber's haircut into a classy-cut newspaper hero. No constructive legislator, he has made the Campaign Expenditures Committee, the chair of which fell to him by accident, into a vehicle for constant personal publicity. Married, he likes to dance in his off hours.
Lynn Joseph Frazier of North Dakota, whose head is the shiniest and baldest in the Senate. Out of that head came the startling proposal to abolish war by constitutional amendment.
Occasional Insurgents:
James Couzens of Michigan, who, for all his wealth, likes to attack millionaires. He is against railroad mergers. Third Party advocates want him to finance the cause.
Peter Norbeck of South Dakota, who drills water wells for an occupation and supports the White House only when it means patronage for his state.
William Henry McMaster of South Dakota, who proposed putting Senators and Congressmen in front-line trenches in case of war. A good impersonal debater, he plays golf, likes baseball games, keeps friendly with all factions.
Bronson Cutting of New Mexico, who is an Easterner by birth and education (Groton, Harvard), a Westerner by political preference. A wealthy ex-Bull Mooser, he helps finance other Insurgents' campaigns.
Robert Beecher Howell of Nebraska, an Annapolis graduate who went into civil engineering, drifted into politics as a Norris man, disagrees with the Insurgents on naval reduction.
Thomas David Schall of Minnesota who, blind, boasts of his "100% love for the Common People of America."
William Edgar Borah. Greatest Insurgent of them all, the man whose shadow from the Capitol falls farthest across the land, is thickset, long-lipped, blue-eyed William Edgar Borah of Idaho. All the world knows that he is the Senate's supreme orator, that he rides his horse "Governor" alone in Rock Creek Park every morning, that on his head is a mane of shaggy dark hair. All the world does not know that he carries a pocket comb, that he licks his thumb and slicks down his eyebrows, that he scribbles his name on loose paper when listening to other people.