The Vision of McKellar

Ever since he came to the U.S. Senate in 1917, Tennessee’s bulb-nosed Kenneth Douglas McKellar has kept an unwavering eye on the pork barrel. Last week his colleagues discovered that Kenneth McKellar had raised his sights. Still peering sharply for old-fashioned patronage, he began a cloakroom campaign to become Senate President pro tempore—a position which Virginia’s able, venerable, but ailing Carter Glass will abandon when the 79th Congress convenes.

Senator McKellar was almost certain to get the job—none of his colleagues seemed to want it. In normal times its functions are routine: presiding over the Senate when the Vice President is away. But Senator McKellar could consider another possibility. If the President of the U.S. dies, the Senate President pro tem becomes the de facto Vice President of the U.S. (without inheriting the right of succession). And in that event, Spoilsman McKellar would also get a $5,000-a-year salary increase, plus a Government automobile, with chauffeur.