The 69th

The 69th Congress entered its last session like a mild, limping lamb and exited like a wild, snorting lion. In December, many a critic predicted a do-nothing session. "It will be lucky," said some, "if it passes the appropriation bills." As March 4 approached, it appeared that this session, unfamed, unsung, had accomplished more than any short session of Congress since Woodrow Wilson's first administration and seldom missed an opportunity to defy, vex, prod the Calvin Coolidge Adminstration. Important doings:

Farm Relief. The McNary-Haugen bill (TIME, Feb. 14), for three years a thorn in the side of Congress, was put through both houses by a defiant farm bloc which crushed the Administration cohorts.

Radio Control, the long session of the 69th could not agree on "An Act for the regulation of radio communications"; the short session did. Last week with his signature President Coolidge made the White-Dill bill into law. A commission of five will regulate radio for one year; thereafter the Secretary of Commerce will be acting tsar (TIME, Feb. 21).

Banking. The McFadden-Pepper branch banking bill, another hangover from the long session, was approved (TIME, Feb. 28). Last week the President signed it. It enables national banks to compete more effectively with state banks in branch banking activities. To it was attached a significant rider which renews the charter of the Federal Reserve Banks for an "indeterminate" period after 1934.

Naval Armaments. Appropriation to begin construction of three 10,000 ton cruisers, an item of small importance, became the bone of contention between the "Big Navy" men in Congress and the President. In this struggle it was the regular Republicans who led the revolt against the President. At first, in the House the revolt was quelled by a few votes; the cruisers were ousted from the Navy appropriation bill. The Senate put them back on. Then the House agreed with the Senate against the President.

Frank L. Smith. The Senate condensed what might have been a two-week hubbub into a two-day debate by establishing the precedent of keeping a Senator out while investigating his right to be in. Thus, Senator-designate and Senator-elect Smith found the door of the 69th Senate shut in his face and his pathway to the 70th made more difficult.

Lausanne Treaty. The Senate failed by six votes to muster the two-thirds' majority necessary to ratify this treaty. The result: there is no peaceful relationship between the U. S. and Turkey except a temporary commercial modus vivendi.

World Court. The Senate refused to discuss the World Court, but rejoiced when it heard that Great Britain would not accept the five U. S. reservations. The result: the World Court is for the present a dead issue in the U. S.

Nicaragua and Mexico. Prodding President Coolidge and Secretary of State Kellogg for their activities in Central America was a popular sport among Senators and Representatives.

Minor Bills Passed. Congress put its stamp of approval on the Army housing bill, the corn borer eradication bill, the Lenroot-Taber bill to regulate importation of milk and cream, the Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act (which will be renewed until 1929 when it will automatically be repealed), the Rivers and Harbors bill and many another bill which pleased somebody's constituents. Last week, a few appropriation bills remained to be passed and sent to the President.

Unfinished Business. The Boulder Dam bill and the Alien Property bill were debated last week and may be acted upon before the session closes. Definitely sidetracked subjects included: Philippine legislation (as suggested in Colonel Carmi A. Thompson's report), leasing or sale of Muscle Shoals, reapportionment of Congressional districts, all schemes of tax reduction and a myriad of anti- Prohibition bills.

The surprisingly vigorous "lame duck" session of the 69th Congress, as do all sessions of any Congress, produced its heroes and its buffoons. Not a few farmers think that it had potential martyrs--chiefly Senator McNary of Oregon and Representative Haugen of Iowa of the farm bill. Then there was Senator Curtis of Kansas, quiet Republican floor leader, who kept the calendar of necessary legislation in order, despite revolts, threats and filibusters. Senator Hiram Johnson of California, often thought to be an extinct volcano, flared up last week and fought with his oldtime fire for his Boulder Dam bill. Senator Borah of Idaho seemed a bit detached during most of the session. Only against Nicaraguan intervention did he let loose the full power of his forensic springs, and to little effect. Senator Glass, in spite of his thwarted fisticuffing, did able work in lining up Democrats for the McFadden-Pepper banking bill. In the House, Speaker Longworth and Floor Leader Tilson, usually well-behaved Republicans, boldly ignored the White House on the three cruisers' appropriation. Representative Burton of Ohio made a speech in behalf of the President, which actually changed a few votes--a rare thing in Congress nowadays.

Some of these may be heroes to their constituents, or to the nation, or to their valets (if they have any) ; but certainly no one of them is a buffoon. Washington correspondents agree that one gentleman, more than any of his fellow lawmakers, is worthy of the title--the buffoon of the 69th. The gentleman in question is Senator James Thomas Heflin of Alabama. When theatrical circles meet political circles they argue whether it is an insult to the authoress of Abie's Irish Rose to compare her play with the mouth-pourings of Mr. Heflin. One thing certain--both have had long runs. But Abie's Irish Rose, they say, does no harm, while Mr. Heflin's prolific blather-skitism delays the Senate's business. His utterances on the Fall-Doheny trial, on who killed Jesse Smith, on Roman Catholic conspiracy to control U. S. politics, none of which accomplished anything, consumed more time than the entire debate on the radio control bill. In the 69th Congress, Mr. Heflin graduated from the role of a fire-eater to the role of a nuisance.

Senator James A. Reed of Missouri, hero or marplot* is conspicuous as the only Senator who, already famed, has increased his fame during the 69th Congress. He, a sizzling meteor among orators, a bastinado of the present trend of U. S. politics, has seized the role of Senator inquisitor, which Borah of Idaho, Walsh of Montana and the late LaFollette of Wisconsin once held. Everyone knows how Senator Reed revealed several millions in certified slush in Pennsylvania and Illinois (TIME, May 31, et seq.) ; how he dragged the Anti-Saloon League into the investigations and gave it its first important public airing. These are some of the reasons why the Gentleman from Missouri, vigorous at the age of 65, finds himself the only Senator who is being boomed for President. He intended to return to law practice in Kansas City, Mo., when his Senate term expires in 1929, refused to take the presidential talk seriously until recently. Five weeks ago, in Manhattan, he put forth his political creed: "That people is governed best which is governed least." Fortnight ago, in Indianapolis he seared the Coolidge administration for acquiesence in the Pennsylvania election corruption. Concerning Frank O. Lowden, he said: "Mr. Lowden is now appearing on the horizon again as the special angel and champion of the farmers. He is about as well qualified for that position as I would be for leader of the angelic choir." Last week Mr. Reed sought to extend his fame as an inquisitor, introduced in the Senate a resolution which would allow his committee to investigate all 1926 Senatorial elections during the recess of Congress (March to December). In the debate that followed, Senator Robinson of Indiana, Republican "yes" man, opened a vehement attack on Mr. Reed. "The Indiana investigation of Mr. Reed," said Mr. Robinson, "degenerated into a garbage wagon with the venerable Senator from Missouri in the front seat. . . . I recognize the publicity advantages that would come to the Senator from Missouri between now and the convention in June, 1928. I can see where he would be accompanied by a troupe of newspaper reporters all over the United States. But why should the United States be forced to pay the contribution for the advancement to the presidency of any member of this body?"

Thoroughly angered, Mr. Reed advanced toward Mr. Robinson, replied: "An insinuation is the last resort of a coward. The Senator has referred to me several times as venerable. I hope I am at least respectable. But the Senator neither here nor elsewhere need take my years into account."*

Meanwhile, the Reed boom did not die. People cheered him, damned him, looked into his history.

He was born of Scotch Presbyterian and farmer stock near Mansfield, Ohio, not far from the birthplace of his dearest enemy, Anti-Saloon League. His parents took him away to Iowa at the age of 3. From behind the plow and with a not unusual schooling, he entered a law office in Cedar Rapids. He ate up the law like so much beefsteak. Iowa, in that era an uplift-crusading Republican community, was no place for this pertinacious Democrat. At 26, he went to Kansas City, Mo. One of his first political jobs was county prosecutor. He secured 285 convictions out of 287 cases during his 15-month term--an astounding record. On such food the inquisitor of the Senate was trained. For two terms he was an able Mayor of Kansas City. In 1904 he reached prematurely for the governorship and received his only popular defeat. Then he returned to his law practice, sharpened his tongue and his wits. In 1911 it was a polished lawyer and not a politician, a satirist and not a reformer, who entered the U. S. Senate. He has been there ever since, despite combined efforts of Woodrow Wilson's friends and Republicans to oust him in 1922.

Senator Reed is a destructive, not a constructive force in lawmaking, but he is consistent. He believes that the reform wave of the last two decades, which would create laws and Federal bureaus to cure every popular ill, is mischievous. If this is continued to its ultimate complexity, every time a citizen has a toe ache he will write to his Congressman to put through a bill creating a staff of Federal doctors to soothe such maladies. Senator Reed would have better execution of the existing constitutional law and less reform, fewer "hordes of officials and snoopers who swarm over the land like the lice of Egypt." For the same reason that he fought the Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act, he opposed the McNarv-Haugen farm relief bill. Senator Reed's other Jeffersonian axiom is that the U. S. should not meddle in the affairs of Europe.

On the Senate floor Mr. Reed is an impressive figure--steel-grey eyes, well-barbered white hair, one of the few Senators who has reached 65 without being either fat or lean, a voice that can ripple gently or ring magnificently or snarl menacingly. Herewith, one excerpt from Mr. Reed's prose and one from his oratory:

P: "Truth to tell, Washington has become the universal Mecca of human freaks. To that city protagonists of vagaries gravitate by all known routes, some by election, some by appointment, some by 'divine command.' The great majority, however, merely follow noses that itch for the business of others. There they bed and breed."

P: During the League of Nations debate, Mr. Reed told a fable: "These Senators say that all the nations of the world have become brothers and that therefore we can safely join the League of Nations. Then on the next day they say that all the nations of the world hate one another and that in order to restrain them from fighting one another we must join the League of Nations.

"Mr. President, they are like the animal in Aesop's Fables which had four legs on its back as well as four legs under its belly. When it got tired running on one set of legs, it simply turned over and ran on the other set; and you never could catch it. That is the perfectly parliamentary animal that these Senators are."

Last week it became known that Henry Ford for the first time in many years had been reached by a minion of the law. Result: he was scheduled to appear next week in federal court, Grand Rapids, to defend a $1,000,000 libel suit brought by famed farm-organizer, Aaron Sapiro, Jew, of Chicago. Inconspicuously, came news that Senator Reed had been retained as Mr. Ford's chief counsel. Ford-Reed--the hyphen would certainly not injure Presidential-Candidate Reed.

If the Democrats should nominate and if the nation should elect Mr. Reed as President, there would be few dull moments during his administration. Instead of the unquotable voice of the present White House spokesman, tart epigrams would come bounding out the White House door. "President" Reed would undoubtedly go before Congress in person, equipped with messages which some might call "shocking." Whether Reedability would redound to the good of the country is, of course, a matter of opinion.

*Woodrow Wilson first used this word to describe him.

*Next day, Senator Reed threatened a filibuster if his resolution was not considered. Said he: "If we do not get this authority, there will be no other business done this session. If the work of the committee is to be aborted, we might as well know it now."