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President of Indiana. On the surface, Martin's homespun New England ways sometimes seem clumsy. Like Longfellow's blacksmith, Martin, the son of a blacksmith, has crisp black hair and a long cowlick reaching to his shaggy right eyebrow. In public, his words often get jumbled, as they did last week when he was about to name Indiana's Charles Halleck, Martin's majority leader, to a welcoming committee for South Korean President Syngman Rhee. Martin first referred to Rhee as "the President of India," then checked himself and blurted, "the President of Indiana." Finally, on the third try, he got the title right.*
But when he is with "the boys," his Congressmen, he shows a deep understanding of human nature, a quaint, rough-hewn humor and uses a judicious mixture of stern and gentle talk. From his storehouse of political facts, Martin, like a much-loved baseball coach (he was once a semi-pro shortstop), knows when to cajole and when to suggest.
"Don't vote with us on this one," he recently told a Congressman worried by re-election troubles, "it'll hurt you. Just keep it quiet and vote the other way." But the Congressman voted with the Republican leadership, and Joe asked, "Did you misunderstand me?" Said the Congressman, "Hell no, Joe. If you had demanded I vote with you, I wouldn't have done it. But you were so decent about it, I couldn't vote against you, and besides, I think you were right."
On the other hand, Martin once let fly when he found that two western Congressmen missed a vote on reclamation projects in their states because they were trout fishing. "You don't deserve to come back," growled Martin. "I can understand a man not voting with us when it would hurt him. I can even understand a man being absent when a vote doesn't directly affect him. But this one affected your part of the country. If you don't take care of your people, they won't take care of you. So far as I'm concerned, you can go fishing forever."
Deep-Grained Pragmatism. In the 83rd Congress, Joe Martin's belief in teamwork has extended to the White House where, in Monday morning meetings of congressional leaders, he has become Ike's grand legislative strategist. At those meetings the Senate's William Knowland harps on the idea of his forum's "coequal" status, and chants unhelpfully about his difficulties. By contrast, Joe Martin keeps his peace, leaves detailed reporting on the House to Majority Leader Halleck until Ike asks, "What do you think, Joe?" Then Joe tells the President what laws he thinks should be proposed, and, abiding by Ike's decision, does his best to deliver. "To be a leader, you've got to follow," explains Halleck. "How do you go to your own people and ask their support for a President if only a few weeks before you've opposed that President?"