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Pat Harrison stood up and, like a sportsman, moved that the election be made unanimous, stepped over to congratulate his successful opponent. Senators rushed for the door. Theodore ("The Man") Bilbo was quick to claim credit for knifing his Mississippi colleague, but newshawks outside the door knew that Harrisonites had already discounted the Bilbo vote. They knew that patronage-seeking, porcine Bill Dieterich of Illinois had a better claim as the Man Who Ditched Pat Harrison. He had gone to Harrison before the caucus, withdrawn his promised support, claiming that too much White House pressure had borne upon him.
Split. The "Glass Hat'' quip was no idle one. Who voted for Harrison and who voted for Barkley was known as surely as if each man had written his vote on a blackboard. And in this division the Senate's 75 Democrats revealed their party split with far greater accuracy than in their final pell-mell rush to kill the Court Plan (see p. 11). To Harrison rallied some 25 conservatives plus a dozen staunch New Dealers who are fond of Old Pat, Senators like Herring of Iowa. Neely of West Virginia, Pepper of Florida. While Harrison carried some New Dealers, Barkley carried no non-New Dealers but found his support in Rooseveltians who trot along willy-nilly: Guffey of Pennsylvania. Ellender of Louisiana. Schwellenbach of Washington, Bilbo of Mississippi, Hughes of Delaware. McKellar of Tennessee. In other words, most Barkley votes were from first-termers who owe their positions entirely to their ride on the Roosevelt coattails.
Would it have been safer to leave the New Deal in the hands of popular Pat Harrison? Would it have been wiser to elect him. though not so abjectly obedient, than to risk revolt against a rubberstamp leader? Some observers found their answer last week when the Opposition confessed that Pat's potent political twin. Joe Robinson, had lined up ample votes to push through the Court Plan. The Plan died with Joe Robinson because many of those votes were personal pledges to Robinson, whose makers felt released when he was gone. Leader Barkley's new job lay plain before him, to win a following of personal admirers as well as political sheep.
New Leader. Strong of teeth, strong of back, Alben William Barkley bears some physical resemblance to Joe Robinson. Keynoter of the last two Democratic conventions, he is a better orator than Robinson but slower on his feet. His obedience to the President's dictates has never been open to question.*
A farm boy from Kentucky's dark tobacco section, Alben Barkley conventionally worked his way through college (Marvin College, Ky., Emory College. Ga., University of Virginia Law School), studied politics under William ("Judge Priest") Bishop, got himself elected prosecuting attorney of McCracken County. By 1913 he was in the House of Representatives, by 1927 in the Senate. His first term in the Upper House was notable for speeches favoring Prohibition. Later he flopped to the wet side.
Always a friend of Labor, Senator Barkley only recently took up such a patrician game as golf. Another heresy was his attendance at a recent cocktail party for Doris Duke Cromwell and her mother-in-law, Philadelphia's plutocratic Mrs. Stotesbury. He was the only Senator to show up.