Good Soldier

(See front cover)

The hour was noon, the day July 4. In the Senate gallery sat about 200 tourists and one Senator, Indiana's Minton. Whether or not the tourists knew it, Senator Minton was able to point out to his friends that they were privileged to witness an unusual spectacle. In the chamber below Majority Leader Joseph Taylor Robinson, sitting on the floor, and Vice President Jack Garner occupying the chair, were placidly puffing cigars in defiance of all Senate rules.

As the hands of the Senate clock overlapped, Vice President Garner laid down his cigar, blew out a puff of smoke, brought his gavel down smartly.

"The Senate will be in order."

Senator Robinson, a bulky figure in a white suit, lumbered to his feet, cigar in hand.

Senator: Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the Journal for July 3 be dispensed with and the Journal approved.

Vice President: Without objection it is so ordered.

There was a moment's pause. At that point on other occasions Senator Robinson regularly suggests the absence of a quorum. Though only four other Senators were on the floor, Leader Robinson broke his rule.

Senator Robinson: Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that during the recess of the Senate the Vice President may have permission to sign the Legislative Appropriation Bill.*

Vice President: Without objection it is so ordered.

Senator: And now, Mr. President, I move the Senate stand in recess until noon Monday.

Vice President: Without objection it is so ordered.

Senator Robinson's cigar returned to his face and he strolled out of the chamber, after one of the briefest Senate sessions on record, lasting less than two minutes. The session was held because the Constitution prohibits one House of Congress adjourning for more than three days without the consent of the other. And Senator Robinson was on hand because as Majority Leader he is always doing parliamentary chores so that his colleagues can have special little holidays.

Summer Session. When Franklin Roosevelt suggested to Congress that it would be a good idea to tax multimillionaires more stiffly, the necessity promptly arose of extending the session of Congress deep into the summer in order to work out a new tax bill. Every responsible New Deal leader in Congress recognized that prolonging the session to pass a major tax bill was a first-rate risk. A Congress ragged with fatigue, sore from repeated White House whippings, cross at the loss of its vacation, is not an easy Congress to control. Toss it a controversial measure, keep it idling for several sizzling weeks while a bill is being concocted and such a Congress is more than apt to go on a rampage, foam at the mouth, kick over many a well-laid plan. The job of gentling the Senate, wiping the foam from its angry mouth and keeping it in harness also falls squarely upon the broad stableboy shoulders of Leader Robinson.

The President did not need to cudgel his memory to recall the sort of leadership of which Senator Robinson is capable. For twelve years, since he succeeded Alabama's late Oscar W. Underwood, "Joe" Robinson has been the boss of the Senate Democracy. Since 1933 he has been in command of a Democratic majority. Of experience he has all that a man requires. His best work in the last six months:

P: Because Chairman Pittman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was lukewarm, Senator Robinson stepped in, took on the unpopular task of championing the World Court for Franklin Roosevelt. Father Coughlin, Huey Long and William Randolph Hearst beat the kettledrums against the Court. Senator Robinson fought valiantly but vainly (TIME, Feb. 11). Grim and glum, he received from Franklin Roosevelt (who laughed off the misadventure) a note thanking him for his "very able and very honorable fight."

P: For two terrible weeks Senator Robinson strove doggedly to save the President's $4,880,000,000 relief bill from the attacks of conservatives who wanted to reduce the appropriation, from radicals who wanted to force the payment of union wages on relief projects. The bill was nearly cut to ribbons under his feet, when Vice President Garner went to his aid, suggested that it would be better to send the mangled measure back to committee for repairs and later slide it through in a cooler hour--a trick which worked.

P: Although when he was a lawyer in Little Rock, many of his best clients were utility companies, although Harvey Couch, potent Arkansas utilitarian, is a better personal friend of his than Franklin Roosevelt, Leader Robinson loyally voted for the TVAmendments to enlarge and improve the President's power yardstick, even more loyally paired his vote to help the Senate approve (45-10-44) the "death sentence" on utility holding companies.

P: On the Bonus Senator Robinson refused to dodge. The vital vote was not on the President's veto but, before that, on the choice between the Bonus-plain (on which a veto might not have been sustained) and the Bonus-with-greenbacks (on which a veto could be sustained). Leader Robinson and a little band of devoted Roosevelt followers grimly voted for what they least of all wanted--green-backs--so that the veto could be sustained.

Loyalty & Leadership. These examples of leadership sum up to about this: Joseph Taylor Robinson is a fine, hard-boiled top sergeant, always on the job, never sparing himself, short on finesse, but long on loyalty. Gruff, bad-tempered, wrinkled-faced, he has the voice of an angry bull and an equal amount of courage. But when it comes to wheedling buck privates who can no longer be driven, to using astute finagling to bring men into line, then Franklin Roosevelt has to rely on men like Mississippi's artful Pat Harrison and shrewd Vice President Garner.

"I regard you as the real moral and intellectual leader of the Senate," Woodrow Wilson once said to Senator Robinson. That was a piece of nonsense on a par with some of the Wilson limericks. Robinson's leadership has been honest, competent, loyal, but never intellectual. Woodrow Wilson's accolade was in fact bestowed for loyalty: Robinson's fight for the unpopular League of Nations. But in the summer of 1935 Franklin Roosevelt may well be grateful, as were Wilson and Smith, to command such dogged loyalty.

Tough Test. It is one thing to lead the Senate through a normal winter & spring session and quite another to hold it peacefully at work all summer. Yet such are the White House orders to Top Sergeant Robinson and he will do his dogged best to carry them out. On the Senate's immediate docket are the Banking Bill (see p. 58), the AAAmendments, the Guffey Coal Bill. One other preliminary skirmish was in sight, final action on the Utilities Bill--with or without the "death sentence." Then will come the big battle of the Tax Bill which will put Senator Robinson's leadership to one of its toughest tests.

Back in 1931 as minority leader, he made the mistake of opposing "Herbert Hoover's demand that income taxes be raised. He declared that higher taxes on large incomes and corporations would discourage investment and throw men out of work. Unfortunately he went even further and brought up another issue which President Hoover had not raised. Said Senator Robinson then:

"In my humble opinion, taxes should not be levied for the purpose of distributing wealth or reducing fortunes but solely with the view of obtaining revenue. Taxation on any other principle approaches confiscation."

Now loyal Leader Robinson will have to reverse himself, which is not as difficult as it sounds for a veteran of his political ability.

Reward for Service? Today Senator Robinson's service record, like that of a good soldier, is brief: enlisted in the public service as a member of the Arkansas General Assembly in 1894 (aged 21); re-enlisted in the U. S. House of Representatives, 1902; transferred to be Governor of Arkansas in 1913; was promoted within twelve days of becoming Governor by the State General Assembly to the U. S. Senate; 1928, served under Al Smith as candidate for Vice President; 1935, displayed conspicuous gallantry in action serving Franklin Roosevelt.

Save for the discomforts incident to following such a versatile leader as Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Robinson can congratulate himself today on one of the most comfortable places in public life. Some two months of the year he and his wife spend in their rambling, old-fashioned frame house in Little Rock. He also finds time to travel abroad as a statesman, a taste which he acquired from attending Interparliamentary Union conferences in England and serving as delegate to the London Disarmament Conference in 1930. For fun he likes nothing better than to go fishing and shooting (he is a crack shot) with Harvey Couch in the Ozarks or Bernard Baruch at Hobcaw Barony in South Carolina. He created 3 sensation in Scotland by the bag he brought down the first time in his life he went out for grouse. And when he walks into his Washington office and hangs his panama and stick on the hat tree (between a stuffed eagle and an untitled seascape by a PWArtist) he is an important figure in the nation's affairs.

When he stood for election in 1930 he carried every county in Arkansas, piled up a majority of 130,000. Today even his friends admit that for some inexplicable reason he is slipping politically at home. Huey Long has threatened to go into Arkansas next year and fight his reelection. There is veiled talk of other candidates : politics being as sectional as they are in the U. S., the more a politician changes from a big man at home to a big man in the country at large, the weaker grows his political backing at home. Thus from Senator Robinson's standpoint Little Rock is no longer Gibraltar. If he wants to serve another six years in the Senate his advisers tell him he will probably have to take off his cutaway in 1936 and hump himself through a lively campaign.

Old Soldier Robinson, however, may never participate in another Arkansas campaign. His consuming ambition is to sit upon the U. S. Supreme Court. And most of wise Washington believes that President Roosevelt has already promised him the first vacancy on that high bench, as a suitable reward for nearly a generation of able Congressional service.

* An important point since Congress had neglected to complete action on the bill providing for its own salaries from July 1.

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