Tardy

One afternoon last week five girls and boys in their teens peered down from the Senate gallery and watched their papa escorted down the aisle, elegant in cutaway with red carnation in buttonhole. Vice President Garner pronounced the oath of office and proud Papa William Henry Smathers said, "I do." After hobbling along for 13 weeks with only 95 members, the U. S. Senate once more had its full membership.

Not illness, strike, riot, civil commotion or act of God, not even the profit motive was responsible for the long delay in Senator Bill Smathers' taking office. During the interval he was drawing $500 a year as a State Senator in New Jersey instead of $10,000 as a U. S. Senator. He had stayed in New Jersey in a vain attempt to help Democratic Boss Hague of Jersey City gain control of the State Senate where the Republicans had a majority of one, with one seat in dispute.

On his first day in Washington handsome Bill Smathers gave cameramen a lensful of how the well-dressed Senator appears, in cutaway, in tails, sitting, standing, talking, smiling, brushing his hair. Newshawks curious about his political significance guessed that it might be easier to tell how he would vote by watching Boss Hague than by listening to his own utterances. Some recent Smatherisms:

"I personally believe, it is time for the New Deal to taper off a bit."

"Understand I am for President Roosevelt and his policies, absolutely."

"My idea of a U. S. Senator is Carter Glass of Virginia."

"All of the people of the nation will be best served by adding new and younger members to the Supreme Court."

Since Boss Hague's other Senator, A. Harry Moore, has declared against the President's Court Plan, New Jersey is ready to go whichever way the political cat jumps.

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