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¶North Carolina Democrat Samuel J. Ervin Jr., 58, twice-wounded veteran of World War I, a lawyer and former associate justice of his state's Supreme Court, who, in his 14 weeks as a Senator, has already reaped some criticism at home for voting too much like a Republican.
¶ Kansas Republican Frank Carlson, 61, a farmer-stockman who has a long record as a conservative state legislator, governor, U.S. Representative and Senator.
¶ South Dakota Republican Francis Case, 57, a World War I marine, country editor and rancher, who favored Douglas MacArthur for the Republican presidential nomination in 1952.
A Praying Man. Neither Arthur Watkins nor any of his colleagues wanted the task of investigating Joe McCarthy ("A very unpleasant task," said Watkins). But when the job was finished, Watkins was satisfied that it had been done right. Every committee decision was unanimous; not once did politics enter into the deliberations. While Committee counsel E. Wallace Chadwick (a former Republican Congressmen from Chester, Pa.) helped, most of the report was written in sections by individual members of the committee.
A devout Mormon who often kneels to pray before a major decision, Chairman Watkins added prayer to the rest of the committee's efforts. He prayed, frequently, that the committee would come to a just and unanimous decision. Said he: "I'm a praying man, and I believe my prayer has been answered."
Precedents & "Pitchfork Ben." In working toward its decision on the case of Joe McCarthy, the Watkins committee had little precedent to draw on. In its 165-year history the U.S. Senate has considered only two motions of censure. Both were adopted.
The first, in 1902, was a dual motion, aimed at the two Democratic Senators from South Carolina, Benjamin R. Tillman and John L. McLaurin. "Pitchfork Ben"* Tillman, an ill-mannered, unprincipled demagogue, a master of the unfounded accusation (in a sense, the McCarthy of his day), started a fist fight with McLaurin on the Senate floor. Fellow Senators pulled them apart, later voted to censure both. Tillman survived the dishonor, was later re-elected to the Senate twice, and died in office. McLaurin served out his term, but did not seek reelection. The bad blood between the two men was caused in part by McLaurin's unfounded charge that Pitchfork Ben was an "intellectual."
The other censure action was taken against Connecticut's Republican Senator Hiram Bingham in 1929. Bingham brought into an executive session of the Senate Finance Committee, as his aide, the assistant to the president of the Connecticut Manufacturers Association. Since the committee was discussing a tariff bill of particular interest to manufacturers, the Senate found that Bingham's action was "contrary to good morals and senatorial ethics . . . (tending) ... to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute." Bingham served the rest of his term, unsuccessfully sought re-election in 1932, and retired from politics.†