93 Votes

Alben Barkley of Kentucky sat quietly in his Majority Leader chair on the Senate floor one day last week looking well contented. The great debate on the Relief bill was under way and he thought he knew how the voting would go. It would be close, but Alben Barkley repeatedly assured the White House that he had lined up five more votes than necessary to insert Senator McKellar's amendment to raise the total of $725,000,000 appropriated by the bill (the House figure) to $875,000,000, the figure desired by the Administration. So sure of himself was Alben Barkley that he had willingly agreed to divide the debating time evenly between proponents of the higher figure and its enemies.

Oklahoma's longwinded Thomas led off for the Administration. Senator Borah was to follow him, Leader Barkley to conclude. Mr. Borah looked worried as the gentleman from Oklahoma droned on & on, about his favorite theme: printing press money. But Mr. Barkley remained serene even when Senator Thomas used up all his side's time and Messrs. Borah & Barkley could not speak.

For the Committee and the forces of Economy, Colorado's Adams said: "The heart of the problem is the far greater question of the confidence of the people in their Congress, and whether we are going to sustain that confidence."

Said South Carolina's adroit Jimmy Byrnes: "No cotton farmer and no wheat farmer can compete [for labor] with WPA wages."

Still Alben Barkley looked comfortable and confident. When the voting began, he didn't bother to keep a tally to see how it was going.

Every Senator was in the Chamber except New Mexico's Chavez/- and two (Utah's Thomas, New Hampshire's Bridges) who had paired their votes, so 93 votes were recorded, the biggest Senate vote in three years. Several times the lead changed as, in the hushed room, Senators in alphabetical order answered "yea" or "nay." First shock to Leader Barkley's composure came just before his own name was called. Alabama's Bankhead, brother of the Speaker and ordinarily a sure Administration vote, said: "Nay."

More shocks followed. Pennsylvania's Jim Davis had been counted on to leave his Republican friends and vote for the higher figure, in deference to the 81,000 WPAsters in his State. "Nay!" he cried. Said his angry Democratic colleague, Joe Guffey, going over to him: "Shall I explain your vote to the people of Pennsylvania?"

"That's your business," replied Senator Davis.

Scott Lucas, freshman Democrat from Illinois, was another keen disappointment to Leader Barkley and his Whip, old J. Ham Lewis of Illinois. So were North Carolina's Bob Reynolds and Minnesota's Shipstead. The latter said he voted in protest to a placard in WPA headquarters urging WPAsters to telegraph to Senators. "I'm tired of pressure," snorted Shipstead.

At all these "nays" Alben Barkley reddened with surprise and anger. When he heard the final count, 47-10-46 against him, he looked incredulous, astonished, hurt. All he could say to reporters was: "As sure as the sun will come up, the President will have to ask for more money. He will have to do it early in March so that it will be available by April 1."

Besides Jimmy Byrnes, Alva Adams--and Jack Garner--the man responsible for aligning votes to beat Leader Barkley and the Administration in this first big Senate showdown of the year, was Pat Harrison. The result showed how much wiser Franklin Roosevelt might have been had he let that shrewd old reliable from Mississippi win the Majority Leadership after Joe Robinson died, instead of intervening for "Dear Alben." Leader Barkley, however, was up against not only Garner, Adams, Byrnes, Harrison & Co., he was also up against a Trend. Of 35 Senators elected or re-elected last November, 21 voted for Economy.

One bit of satisfaction Senator Barkley did get before the Relief bill finally passed out of his hands to conference with the House. To Senator Hatch's amendments strengthening the House provisions against Politics-in-Relief, he added a clause making it illegal for any person to solicit campaign money from any Government employe, local, State or Federal, any part of whose pay comes from a Congressional appropriation. This was in memory of the Federal-aid highway men with whom Governor "Happy" Chandler so bitterly fought Mr. Barkley for Kentucky's nomination last summer.

/- Senator Chavez was at home helping relatives and friends prepare to defend themselves against Federal indictments charging they used their WPA positions for political ends (TIME, Oct. 31).

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