Carolina Pull

Last week Republican Senator Lester J. Dickinson of Iowa, who knows nothing good of the New Deal, lifted his vibrant voice in the Senate to excoriate Works Progress Administration. Scornfully he cried: "We are told over and over again by the President, Hopkins and Farley that there is no politics in relief. . . . No politics in relief! . . ." On firmer ground than when he read a canned speech about the poor having to eat canned dog-food (TIME, May 11), Senator Dickinson thereupon read into the Congressional Record, without giving any names, a letter written by "a gentleman who holds one of the highest offices in the Federal Government." The letter in full as later ferreted out by the Press: "Mr. Eugene A. Russell "Boone, N. C. "My Dear Mr. Russell:

"I have received your letter of the syth, contents of which I have very carefully noted.

"In reply, I beg to state that, if you will furnish this office with a letter of recommendation from the Democratic chairman of your county or Reynolds' manager, I will be more than glad to take your case up with the Works Progress Administration in Watauga County and do everything I can in an effort to help you. This procedure is followed in all instances."

The signature was that of Robert Rice Reynolds, junior Senator from North Carolina.

Almost any other Senator would have sought some method to explain that letter away, but not handsome, debonair "Bob"

Reynolds of Asheville, who is seen oftener than any other member in the Senate gymnasium, who has been married four times in his 51 years. Generally credited with being the best actor in the Senate, Senator Reynolds last week continued unperturbed on his gregarious and convivial way about the capital, because in the kind of politics he plays, embarrassing letters cut little ice. Bob Reynolds won his first campaign in 1910 for prosecuting attorney by going into the mountains astride an old mare with two huge saddlebags stuffed with red, white & blue striped peppermint candy which he distributed to children. His second campaign, in 1924, for lieutenant governor, he lost by taking a trip around the world, sending his constituents political postcards from such places as Port Said, Singapore, Shanghai, Kobe. In 1932 he had his first major political success when, as a Wet, he waged a timely campaign against wealthy Senator Cameron Morrison. Bob Reynolds had stumped the State in an old Ford for six months, staged a surprising act in many a hillbilly town. Appearing on the platform with a roll of carpet under his arm, Candidate Reynolds described the spectacle of Senator Morrison driving up in his Rolls-Royce to the entrance of the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. "And when he gets down out of his Rolls auto-moe-bile," boomed Bob Rey nolds, "Cam's footman takes this here roll of carpet like this -- " Whist! Reynolds unrolled the carpet on the platform, strutted across it pompously to the imaginary doorway of the Mayflower. "And do you know," roared Reynolds, "what he eats in that there hotel? He eats caw-vee-yah! Do you folks know what caw-vee-yah is?" "What?" some yokel would ask faintly. "Why that's fish eggs. That's what it is -- fish eggs!"

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