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Show I NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS Written for The Telegram By Ray Tucker , , WASHINGTON Admlnletra-tion Admlnletra-tion Intrigue rounded up the vote that boosted Alben Berkley Into the senate leadership, but he corralled cor-ralled at least one ballot and th tally was 38-37 by promising not to sing "Wagon Wheels" again at Washington teas, cocktail partlea and dinners. He won by a vole. Th boy from th Kentucky backwooda haa a rich baritone, but the only eong in his repertoire la "Wagon Wheels." He has sung It so often and so loud that he could break up a caucus or a convention con-vention with it. Sometime he has. Th likable, robust Kan-tuckian Kan-tuckian waa willing to make another an-other sacrific. howaver, for as a peddler of earthenware many year ago hi only ambition waa to "get a steady job, get dreised up and atay dressed up." He never dreamed that he would hobnob hob-nob with presidents, 'cabinet members, diplomats and atatea-men. atatea-men. Mr. Berkley Is not an Impressive Impress-ive figure on or off the floor. His tactical style ia too direct, his oratory too florid. But he worked for years in the law of-fic of-fic of William S. Bishop of Pa-ducah, Pa-ducah, Ky., who waa the original orig-inal of th "Judge Priest" in Irvin S. Cobb's famous stories. And from the lip of thi shrewd, kindly figure Mr. Barkley learned the rudiments of politic and human nature. Hi next ambition ambi-tion ia to become a modern Imitation Imi-tation of hi childhood hero-Henry hero-Henry Clay. Like his father'a audden death, the supreme court battle may catapult "Young Bob" La Foliette Fol-iette into a dominant role in American politic. By decree of Senator George Norria and President Presi-dent Roosevelt he loom aa tomorrow' to-morrow' leader in American progresses, pro-gresses, possibly aa their Whit House candidate. Rivalry for the post as George Norris' heir haa long existed between be-tween "Young Bob" and Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana. But th latter forfeited hie right to th legacy by hi opposition to th president in the judiciary struggle. Senator La Foliette stood by Mr, Roosevelt, and the Utter never forget a friend. Th two are also supposed to entertain similar ideas about reforming re-forming political lines so that they will furnish a cleancut division di-vision between lib rata and conservatives. con-servatives. Two events In the last few daya have hoisted the La Foliette star high in the heavens. Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt took him on a weekend outing out-ing aa a sequel to th court 1 ' fight, and Mr. Norris declared he was "too valuable a member of the senate" to be elevated to th supreme court Th fact that Brother Phil La Foliette accompanied the president and "Young Bob" on the weekend sail gave significance to the incident. in-cident. Whenever the La Fol-lettes Fol-lettes have anything important on their minds, they always hold a family counsel one-for-all-and-all-for-on arrangement Inaugurated In-augurated by "Old Bob" many, many years ago. Watch the La Foliette twins! Presidents propose and politicians politi-cians dispose, however a Mr. Roosevelt haa belatedly learned. Mr. Wheeler does not believe that he ha lost cast aa a liberal lib-eral through opposing suprem court reform, and will not easily eas-ily be shoved aside. He never has been in the past. The "man from Montana" la a Yankee from Hudson, Mass. Youngest of 10 children in a atrtct Quaker household, he spindled spin-dled up through high school to a atenographic job in a Boston tool house. He moved to Michigan in a quest for health and education. educa-tion. While attending the University Uni-versity of Michigan law school, ha waited on tabl and clerked In the dean'a office, sold medical and cooking books in the country during the summer. Suffering from asthma and threatened with tuberculosis on graduation, he set out for Spokane, but stopped off in sprawling, brawling brawl-ing Butte. There he settled down. From th first he battled powerful pow-erful power and copper interests defied them by getting himself elected to local office, then to th senate. Within three days ha was breaking freshman precedents, pre-cedents, and upsetting well-es-tablished routine. He expoeed Harry Dougherty when oldsters shrank from th assignment He braved public eentiment in daya of prosperity by assailing th political po-litical gods. H was the first senator to declare publicly for Roosevelt for president in 1932. In any political realignment he must be reckoned with even by uch a precedent-smasher a Franklin D. Roosevelt. The federal communications commission will be fortified with th courage and independence indepen-dence it glaringly needs, provided provid-ed President Roosevelt appoint T. A. M. Craven to on of th existing ex-isting vacancies. Ha once broke an engagement at th Whit House for fear of missing an Army-Navy football game. In organising th commission, Mr. Roosevelt told aids that he meant to name Mr. Craven as engineer because of th ability th latter exhibited while serving the navy during war days. "I can persuade him to serve," aaid th president when it waspolnt-ed waspolnt-ed out that Mr. Craven was earning earn-ing (60,000 a year as radio technician tech-nician and would not make the sacrific. So th president's old friend was summoned to th Whit House. Mr. Craven cam and waited waited long beyond th appointed hour. Explaining to Secretary Early that he had ticket to th gam, and a plan waiting to ly him to New York, he threatened to leave. He was informed that th president would see him "in 10 minutes." "But I can't wait that long." replied Mr. Craven, without missing the kickoff." And out he walked. President Roosevelt's suprem court foe are compiling a behind-the-scenes history of the most momentous parliamentary struggle strug-gle since the battle over th League of Nation and slavery issues. is-sues. It will recount human, dramatic, dra-matic, comic moments clashes episode as well aa th planning of vital strategy. It will tell how th president complained because supreme court justice, notably Chief Jus-tic Jus-tic Hugh, would not sit down and talk things over with him. Mr. Roosevelt explained that he had often conferred with members mem-bers of th New York supreme court, and he coudn't understand why th same system should not prevail at th capital. It will glv th insid story of how Mr. Wheeler persuaded Justice Bran-dels Bran-dels to axtract a atatcment on the court' capacity to function from Mr. Hughe. It will describe how Borah furnished th brains-Gerry brains-Gerry th dinner Wheeler th floor strategy in th historic struggle. It will. If It tell all, credit th G. O. P. with silent, but effective cooperation in the battle. bat-tle. There 1 no certainty that th pagea will be opened for public gas immediately. It may be donated do-nated to the congressional library with an order that it muet not be read until every member of th cast of characters haa passed off th stage. Otherwise, it might destroy de-stroy th Democratic party, blacken a few reputations (politically) (po-litically) and, aa on contributing contribut-ing editor says, "raise hell. generally." gen-erally." Copyright, 1937, for Th Telegram |