Caucus on Wheels

Aboard the train which carried the body of Joseph T. Robinson back to his native Arkansas were, besides the Senator's family and friends, 38 Senators, 23 Representatives, Postmaster General Jim Farley, Assistant Attorney General Joe Keenan, Undersecretary of the Interior Charles West. It would not be just to say that any of them did not have sorrow in his heart, but all had politics, biggest politics. Hardly had the train pulled out of Washington when the politicians started and it continued, save for a few solemn moments in Little Rock, until the train pulled again into Washington's Union Station three days later. Every compartment where two or three politicians were gathered together was a caucus room. In every corridor statesmen buttonholed one another, making hay while the wheels clicked. Messrs. Keenan, Farley and West, the New Deal's top-flight liaison men, lobbied from dawn to dusk.

Great things were at stake: the fate of the President's Court Bill, and equally important, the choice of a majority leader to succeed Senator Robinson. Senator Alben Barkley of Kentucky, choice of the President for the post, and Senator Pat Harrison, backed by most of the veteran Senators and Court Bill opponents, were the rival candidates. Both kept pretty much to their staterooms. But their friends and supporters lobbied all over the train keeping a jealous eye on one another. The Republicans aboard, led by Senators Vandenberg and Bridges, looked on happily. The rest, even Senator La Follette who is not a Democrat but a Progressive, were engrossed in serious business, too engrossed even for much poker or whiskey, the customary relaxations of political funeral trains.

Alben Barkley is not the most popular man in the Senate. Behind him lined up mostly zealous New Dealers and freshmen Senators. Pat Harrison, on the other hand, is one of the best-liked Senators. Behind him lined up most of the anti-Roosevelt Democrats who knew he was a conservative at heart, and seasoned Senators to whom Pat Harrison is a grand old guy. Being as loyal as Joe Robinson, Pat Harrison has stood by the President, even unto the Supreme Court Bill, but not with vociferous enthusiasm. Thus both contenders were in favor of the Court Bill, and to ask the President to accept Pat Harrison was not to ask him to take an enemy as his lieutenant. Therefore Pat Harrison's friends had burned with indignation when the President's "message to A'ben" (see p. n) emphasized Alben Barkley's place as "acting leader." Before they left Washington the President had called Pat Harrison to the White House to make amends, to assure him that he was neutral in the contest, absolutely neutral. But this did not allay the tense feeling on the funeral train.

Arrival in Little Rock brought a new element into the picture. Mr. Farley had wired ahead to Arkansas' Governor Carl E. Bailey and rushed off to a breakfast appointment to urge him to appoint at once a pro-Administration Senator in Joe Robinson's place. This was a delicate problem because Governor Bailey has his eye on the seat and must soon call a special election to fill it. Already it had been suggested that he appoint Widow Ewilda Robinson, which would make Arkansas the first State to have an all-female representation in the Senate, since Arkansas' other Senator is Widow Hattie Caraway. Widow Robinson would almost certainly be less of a nonentity than Widow Caraway, but there were other reasons which made Governor Bailey reluctant to appoint her. Widow Caraway was given a temporary appointment by Governor Parnell only to find she liked it so well that she refused to give it up. So vital to Mr. Farley was the immediate appointment of a New Deal Senator, that when the funeral train departed Joe Keenan was left behind to reason with Governor Bailey.

Meantime the Congressional delegation had filed by Joe Robinson's bier in the State Capitol, lunched at the Little Rock Country Club where some of them took a dip nude in the pool (the few ladies in the building having been requested not to look out of the rear windows) before attending the burial. That evening the impromptu political caucus returned to its train and started back to Washington where this week a majority leader was to be chosen. One important new delegate was present, Vice President John Nance Garner who had closed his month's vacation in Texas. Before leaving Uvalde he succinctly announced: "Selection of a floor leader is none of my business." As the mourners well knew, however, the interests and duties of an elder U. S. statesman often transcend the strict boundaries of his business.

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