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Show Defeat of Wheeler Marks Passing of Able Legislator By BAUKHAGE rVflNN Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street, N.W., Washington, I). C. There was something rather pathetic pa-thetic about it to me when I heard the Preniiient say two words that iWKav marked the obituary obit-uary of a long career. The terse reply was made at a presidential press-radio conference con-ference when a reporter asked Mr. Truman if he cared to say anything about the senatorial primary in Montana Mon-tana in which Burton K. Wheeler Wheel-er was defeated by Leif Erickson. ber when the picture was taken. Here are two paragraphs from the story: "Last autumn (remember this was written in E'ebruary, 1935), citizens citi-zens of Montana sent the same young man to Washington as a senator sen-ator for his third term with the largest majority ever given a candidate can-didate by the Mountain State." A decade passes and new voters grow up. "Wheeler (I observed this in the same interview) came back to his office in the Senate building with the pictures of the high mountains and the deep valleys of his adopted state on the walls, and a victory measured in the same magnificent dimensions. His hair is a little thinner than it was but he can wake the echoes with the same thunder he released when he first arrived. He is still up and at 'em. And the higher they fly the more anxious he is to make them ML" Wheeler, Norris, Ashurst they, too, flew high. There was nothing more that the President could say. He already had endorsed Wheeler with that remarkable re-markable loyalty that he has for his friends a virtue which easily may go down in history as one of his faults. Matron Upsets Solon's Aplomb It was during the day and night senate sessions on OPA. The senate recessed at 6 p. m. to continue deliberations de-liberations at 8 p. m. Republican Sen. Styles Bridges of New Hamp- : shire, bitter OPA opponent, and Mrs. Bridges went to a restaurant for dinner. Coming out, they were caught by a sudden sharp rainstorm. rain-storm. The dapper, white-linen-sulted senator hailed a passing cab, and he and his wife piled in. Be- j fore they could shut the door (and 1 in accordance with Washington's i group riding) a huge and very damp Labrador retriever bounded in, ' landing in the senatorial lap. The I dog was followed by his corpulent mistral. Some moments elapsed as the quartet arranged themselves in the cab's back seat. The dog continued con-tinued to snuggle and drip on the white linen suit. Suddenly the corpulent lady, glancing sharply at the sen. iter, -..'Hi: Why. you're Senator Bridges, aren't you?" m idges, pleased to be recognized, nodded graciously, "Well," said the lady, jerking the Sycophantic canine away from the Republican senator, "I'm a regis- tared Democrat!" . . . Wheeler gave the freshman senator, sena-tor, Harry Truman, his first opportunity oppor-tunity to show his mettle by letting him bat for him as chairman of the important Interstate Commerce committee. Truman made good, and a warm friendship developed. But even presidential aid couldn't save Wheeler. The other day I was looking over the autographed photographs with which Harold McGrath, superintendent superin-tendent of the senate radio gallery, had decorated the walls. It was Just about the time that things began be-gan to look bad for the senator. We commented on the senators we had known who had ended long careers in defeat. Of course, Sen. George Norris was the classic example. Five terms. Then he was replaced by an anti-Koosevelt man, Sen. Kenneth Wherry. Senator Norris' closest contender for the longevity record in recent years was Ellison ("Cotton Ed") Smith of South Carolina, violently anti-New Deal. He was defeated by a pro-Roosevelt man the year after Norris lost out Up on the radio nailery wall is a picture of Henry Ashurst. the sen. ator whose tongue fairly dripped epigrams. He came to the Senate when New Mexico was admitted to the Union. That was 1912. He left tn 1940, serving five terms plus five j Schwellenbach Yearns for West There's a persistent rumor that I Labor Secretary Schwellenbach I would like to desert the Potomac for Puget Sound. That's not hard to understand un-derstand since heavy pressure is being exerted to make drastic changes in the labor department I and since Schwellenbach is as popular pop-ular as he is in his home state. In 1934, when he was running for ! the United States senate, Lew I Schwellenbach carried every county ' of the state the first time this ever had happened. Vicariously, as shown in the recent re-cent resounding success of his brother, Edgar Schwellenbach, in winning the Supreme court justiceship jus-ticeship of the state his popularity popular-ity persists today. Edgar Schwel- lenbach, almost unknown outside ; his own community, filed against the I I incumbent. The court elections usu- ally don't draw a very heavy vote i yet the man with the former sen- ator's name received more votes than were cast for the Republican and Democratic candidates for the senate. years. The year 1940 was a bad one for veterans besides Ashurst, William King of Utah left us, having served since 1917, and Lynn Frazer of North Dakota, who came to Washington Wash-ington in 1923. Senator Wheeler served only four terms, but his vivid personality made It seem longer. He made many enemies. Many people disapprove of his isolationism and some of his other views most thoroughly. But there are many, even among his detractors, who respect him for his integrity, for his ability as a legislator, legis-lator, something which perhaps is understood in Washington better than elsewhere, and also because they consider his pacifism sincere. I remember a conversation I had with Jerry O'Connell, former representative rep-resentative who tried to take Wheeler's Wheel-er's seat in a campaign somewhat similar to the one which brought victory to Erickson. Jerry was prot- ! ty sore. He had a copy of the Ana- j conda Standard in his hand as well a a clipping. The clipping was a I report of one of Senator Wheeler's campaign speeches, made early in his career. I can't remember the phraseology, but the general idea (expressed by Wheeler) was that if the Anaconda Standard, which was supposed to represent the sentiments senti-ments of the big copper interests, ever praised Wheeler, it would be a sign that he was no longer worthy of the support of the people of Montana. Mon-tana. O'Connell read that to me. Then he picked up his copy of the Standard, Stand-ard, and read from it some very kind words for Senator Wheeler. However, I think it would be grossly unfair to say that Senator Wheeler ever "sold out." even figuratively, fig-uratively, to any interests. As far as I know, he is as sincere today to-day as he was when he made his first fight on whatever issue had a side unpopular enough to attract him. In February of 1935 I had a long Interview with Senator Wheeler. I have the yellowing clipping before me. It is illustrated with a huge photograph (more picture than text) showing Wheeler, his fist clenched about to drive it into his palm a favorite gesture. I remem- Senator in for Happy Returns The eyes of Washington Post readers bugged out recently when J they read in a story describing senatorial sen-atorial wives' experiences with rising ris-ing prices that "Mrs. Glen Taylor buyi groceries for a family of 10. the youngest of whom was an 18-year-old baby." I understood immediately im-mediately that the reporter had meant 18-DAY-old baby, because I just two weeks before I had the pleasure of smoking one of the 50 excellent cigars sent up to the radio correspondents gallerv by the sena- I tor. It isn't often that cigars are dis- 1 tributed in the senate for this par- I ticular reason, as most of the legislators legis-lators have put aside childish things. But radio correspondents smoked Senator Taylor's cigars and congratulated him on his third son, as well as on the other honor recently re-cently tendered him by a panel of radio experts. They voted him the ! "legislator most likely to succeed in i radio." The two honors had no connection. |