Light on Lobbying

"Mr. President!"

"The Senator from Nebraska."

Senator George William Norris, grey and cadaverous, was on his feet at his Senate desk. The chamber, emptied by an hour-long tariff speech by Senator Broussard of Louisiana, began filling up. In his rear-row seat Senator Hiram Bingham of Connecticut kept shifting his long legs nervously. His well-cut white head was bent forward; his eyes strayed toward Senator Norris, dropped, scanned the chamber. Senator Jones of Washington glanced up from the workaday stack of books and papers on his desk. Senator Johnson of California in the front row swung his red chair halfway round to watch. His colleague, Senator Shortridge, folded his long arms with stately dignity across his narrow chest.

Senator Norris explained: the Lobby Committee had developed the fact that Senator Bingham had hired Charles L. Eyanson, had put him on the Senate pay roll (TIME, Oct. 7). Subsequently Senator Bingham in "discourteous language" on the Senate floor had assailed the Lobby Committee's membership. Therefore, he, Senator Norris, offered the following resolution. . . .

A page boy took the paper from his hand and carried it fluttering to the rostrum where a clerk righted it and intoned:

"RESOLVED: That the action of the Senator from Connecticut in placing Mr. Charles L. Eyanson upon the official rolls of the Senate at the time and in the manner set forth ... is contrary to good morals and senatorial ethics and tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute and such conduct is hereby condemned.'' "

I ask unanimous consent for the present consideration of the resolution," said Norris.

Fussbudgety Senator Fess of Ohio was on his feet. Senator Bingham's eyes traveled trustingly to him. Said Senator Fess: "Mr, President, I ask the Senator [Norris] if he will not allow the resolution to go over." Senator Norris moved his head in the perfunctory assent of one long used to the Senate's delays. Senator Fess sat down. Senator Bingham looked at the back of Senator Norris' head. . . .

Thus was the stage set last week for a scene rare in Senate annals. Senator Norris would have dropped his resolution if Senator Bingham had consented to do "honestly and manfully" two things: 1) Admit his mistake in hiring Eyanson; 2) Apologize to the Lobby Committee. Senator Bingham, despite the pleading of his friends, refused.

Censure. Two legislative days later the Norris resolution came before a gravely hushed Senate. Arose Senator Bingham, again to speak in self-defense, this time softly, tactfully. His defense: Senators hire their "cousins, sons and daughters" as clerks and nobody complains; he made no profit by the employment of Lobbyist Eyanson; a Senator alone can judge his ethics. His only error, as he saw it, was his failure to notify his colleagues of what he had done. Insisted Senator Bingham: "Nothing dishonorable or disreputable was attempted. . . . My motives were based on my wholehearted zeal for a protective tariff."

The Senate was unconvinced. One after another a half-dozen Senators arose to speak brief condemnations of Senator Bingham. Senator Gillett of Massachusetts, pleading for his Connecticut neighbor, revealed that when he was House Speaker he "frequently saw Congressmen drunk on the floor but he never "considered it necessary to censure them publicly."

Bingham friends--old Guardsmen Smoot and Edge-- tried to head off the inevitable with substitute resolutions, oblique and apologetic, which "disapproved" of such a transaction without specifically criticizing Senator Bingham. But the Senate, in stern self-righteous mood, rejected them all.

One concession was made by Senator Norris. He accepted into his resolution a phrase suggested by Senator Glenn of Illinois that Bingham's action was "not the result of corrupt motives." Thus softened, the Norris resolution was adopted by the Senate, 54 to 22, old guard Republicans supporting their Connecticut colleague.

Meanwhile the Lobby Committee continued on its way after undercover legislative agents. Developments:

Grundy on the Constitution. Recalled to the witness stand was Joseph R. Grundy, archlobbyist from Pennsylvania (TIME, Nov. 4). A minor political war developed between him and committee members (Arkansas' Caraway; Idaho's Borah, Montana's Walsh, Wisconsin's Blaine) when it was found that he had previously filed a statement in which this appeared:

"If the volume of vice in the U. S. Senate were proportioned to population, productive power or the total sum contributed toward national upkeep, some of those states which are now most vocal [against the tariff] would need amplifiers to make their whispers heard. Such states as Arizona, South Dakota, Idaho, Mississippi etc. do not pay enough toward the upkeep of the government to cover the costs of collection, and states like Pennsylvania, hamstrung as they are by adverse legislation, support these backward commonwealths and provide them with their good roads, post offices, river improvements and other federal aid, figuratively on a golden platter."

Lobbyist Grundy later added to his list of "backward commonwealths": Montana, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina. Nebraska ''is pretty bad"; Alabama "has been doing pretty well of late"; Kansas "is not as good as it was."

Grundy: It was a great mistake each State was given two Senators.

Caraway: When it comes to the interests of Pennsylvania, the people of Idaho ought not to say anything?

Grundy: They ought to talk darned small.

Caraway: Will you please make out a list of the Senators who should be heard from. . . . This is Grundy's list of preferred Senators and common Senators.

Walsh: How would you silence Borah and myself?

Grundy: I think your own intelligence would suggest silence on such matters [as the tariff]. . . .

Blaine: What do you think of Wisconsin?

Grundy: Oh, Senator, I'd hate to tell you!

Blaine: You think Pennsylvania would be better off if it is seceded from the Union?

Grundy: In the Civil War we contributed more than any other State to keep the Union together--

Caraway: You contributed more people who stole everything they could get their hands on than any other five States! They even stole the library out of the Supreme Court!