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In Congress: he is rivaled only by Illinois' Lewis for high-flown eloquence and bookish wit. He chairmans the potent Judiciary Committee, belongs to the Indian Affairs, Irrigation & Reclamation, Public Lands & Surveys Committees, all important to the political welfare of Arizona. He is not famed for elaborate addresses to his colleagues, but Congressional Records of the past 22 years have been enriched by pungent "remarks" from "the War Eagle of the San Francisco Crags," "the Silver-Tongued Sunbeam of the Painted Desert."
He never chooses a monosyllable when a polysyllable will do. To him lobbyists are "obscene harpies." Fellow-Senators settle back for a quarter-hour's solid amusement when he strikes such a forensic vein as inspired his essay on the Democratic Donkey: "He is a braying compendium of stately dignity, stanch endurance, fortitude and patience. ... In our quadrennial Presidential campaigns there is more music in his raucous hee-haw than in the midnight minstrelsy of a nightingale. The donkey is a serio-comic philosopher, whose stamina and stoicism conquered the wilderness . . . a sure-footed creature of epicurean taste and gargantuan appetite, but whose appetite and taste, happily enough, may be assuaged and satisfied by a nibble at a desert cactus, and he then is ready for another long and arid journey."
He voted for: 18th Amendment (1917), Volstead Act (1919), Soldier Bonus (1924), Reapportionment (1929), Hoover moratorium (1931), Muscle Shoals (1931-33), RFC (1952), Bonus (1932), Repeal (1933), Economy Act (1933;), 16-to-1 silver (1933), AAA (1933), NIRA (1933), abrogating gold contracts (1933), St. Lawrence Waterway (1934), Cotton Control (1934), stock exchange regulation (1934).
He voted against: Boulder Dam (1928), Hawley-Smoot tariff (1930), Sales Tax (1932), Bonus (1933-34)
Legislative hobbies: silver, copper, veterans, Indians, irrigation.
In the closing days of the 1928 first Congressional session he filibustered mightily against passage of the bill to construct Boulder Dam on the theory that populous California would not pay arid and thinly settled Arizona a fair share for water diverted from the Colorado River. He was bitterly disappointed when the bill passed at the next session. Like many another frontier politician, he dreams of U. S. territorial expansion: three years ago he lustily campaigned for U. S. acquisition of Lower California and a slice of Sonora to straighten out Arizona's southern boundary.
In appearance he is a tall, sleek theatrical figure with black hair, a tail coat, and glasses on a broad black ribbon. He is a Roman Catholic.
Outside Congress: he lives with his wife in a small house on K Street. He owns no car, rides taxis, streetcars or walks. He does not hobnob with his western colleagues in Congress, prefers to circulate in Washington's more socialite set.
Senator Ashurst fancies himself a literary man. He is not over-generous with newspaper interviewers. If a reporter brings up an interesting subject for discussion, the Senator is likely to reserve comment on the topic for a paid article in the Saturday Evening Post. He keeps under lock & key a voluminous diary, the posthumous publication of which he expects to immortalize him as the great recorder of the Washington scene.