Hell knows no fury like a U.S. Senator whose constituents have been maligned. Last week the U.S. Senate witnessed a scene which almost called for dueling pistols.
The reputation of two Kentuckians had been besmirched. Fortnight ago, North Dakota’s William Langer, one of the most shunned men in the senatorial club, had called Economic Stabilizer Fred Vinson “the most hated man in America,” and had ridiculed Fred Vinson’s jesting, 260-lb. assistant, Edward (“Young Pritch”) Prichard. Now, like a feuding mountaineer, up rose Kentucky’s Alben Barkley.
It was dastardly, he said, to make such a statement about Fred Vinson. No Gallup Poll had been taken on the matter, and even if it had, how would that reflect on Fred Vinson’s sincerity, integrity or courage? Judge Vinson is an honorable, popular man, and he does not come, as Senator Langer inferred, from a district where “the people still carry long guns.”
Asked Missouri’s rotund Bennett Clark: Did not Fred Vinson come from a cultured district? Had he not attended “one of the finest, oldest and best small colleges in the U.S.; namely, Center College?”
Senator Barkley: He did, indeed.
Senator Clark: “No one but an idiot” could question the patriotic motives of such men as Fred Vinson. He leaned on this remark a bit, repeating in stentorian tones: “As I say, no one but an idiot. . . .”
With such support, Senator Barkley then turned to the case of Ed Prichard: “He is greatly overweight. … He is a very heavy young man. … I think the truth is that the Army found it could not train him down to the proper proportions and gave him an honorable discharge. . . .
“Senator Langer said Young Pritch was never even elected dogcatcher. . . .Neither was the Senator from North Dakota.
I am not even going to say that an atmosphere of such a position as that would find congeniality for the Senator. . . .” Hawk-eyed Senator Langer had waited patiently for Alben Barkley’s conclusion.
Now he, too, rose. He would take nothing back. Fred Vinson was against the railroad workers, he said, and the railroad workers hated Fred Vinson. Senator Langer, of course, was for the railroad workers. His allegiance, as always, was only to the common man.
Casting about, he continued: “I do not owe Harry Hopkins anything. … I desire to say that if there is a man for whom I have the utmost contempt it is Harry Hopkins. . . .” Having thus implied that Senator Barkley is a White House stooge, Senator Langer shifted again. Now his tone was social—and sarcastic. Said he: “I hold in my hand a newspaper clipping . . . from a page headed ‘Society.’ Of course, Mr.
President, Society does not mean anything to me. . . . But I was very much interested in noting that my distinguished friend [Senator Barkley], whom I respect so much, was entertained by Mrs. Edward Stotesbury and James H. R. Cromwell—one the widow of a railroad magnate, the other the man who married the richest girl in the world.”Senator Langer hissed on. It seemed to him that all Senators from Kentucky manage to get around. Just the other day Senator “Happy” Chandler had had lunch in Manhattan’s Colony Club with “a lady named Elsa Maxwell.” Delightedly, Senator Langer reported that the lady named Maxwell seemed to think Senator Chandler was the “cat’s whiskers.” In his seat in the front of the chamber Alben Barkley reddened with anger. Finally he rose to cry: “Cheap device . . . deliberately striking below the belt. …” The debate was over. It had taken an hour and a half, cost the taxpayers $450 to reprint in the Congressional Record. Edified and enlightened, the Senate moved on to the sober consideration of the confirmation of new postmasters.
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