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MASSACHUSETTS' JOHN MCCORMACK, 67, was elected Democratic floor leader the same month -September, 1940 -that Mister Sam became Speaker (during the two Republican Congresses since then, Rayburn became floor leader, McCormack Democratic whip). Boston-born John McCormack, a cigar-munching teetotaler, was left fatherless at 13, shined shoes, ran errands, earned his way through night law school, was elected to the House in 1928. He is a hard-knuckled politician from one of the hardest knuckled of all political schools: Massachusetts' Twelfth Congressional District. More than half Irish, the Twelfth takes in ten dingy, crowded
South Boston wards and is, says a local politico, a "district that demands service." It gets service from Roman Catholic John McCormack: the Twelfth probably has more public housing than any other U.S. congressional district. Childless, devoted to his wife Harriet (he can boast that in 39 years of marriage they have never missed dinner together, whether at public banquet or in fireside privacy), McCormack too is, in effect, wedded to the House. Heir apparent to Rayburn, leader of the New England Democratic bloc, grey, sharp-featured John McCormack is, in his own words, his party's "field general." His battlefield is the House floor, his weapon one of the House's toughest and most partisan tongues. "I'm a great believer in the two-party system." he says. "But I think the Democrats should be the majority party."
VIRGINIA'S HOWARD WORTH SMITH. 75, is the chairman of the House Rules Committee, which must pass on all legislation except appropriations bills. Rules can bottle up a bill or define the terms of its floor consideration, e.g., by setting the time limits on debate, by deciding whether amendments may be made from the floor. Such a power position is made to order for lanky (6 ft. 160 lbs.), courtly Howard Smith, possessor of the bushiest eyebrows south of John L. Lewis. A Byrd organization Democrat, he is the recognized leader of House Southern conservatives, uses his committee to fight off civil rights legislation. ("I use every weapon I've got," he says. "That's why I'm here.") Since 1931 Judge Smith (he was a state circuit judge) has represented Virginia's Eighth Congressional District, stretching from the Blue Ridge to the Northern Neck and including Charlottesville and Fredericksburg. Judge Smith owns three farms, lives on his family lands near Broad Run, where he has nearly 300 head of dairy cattle, and an old red sow whose ears he likes to scratch. A hard fighter but a fair one. Smith knows the House rules and lives by them. "These rules have been developed over 170 years." he says. "There is reason behind them."