Will Soldiers Vote?

John Rankin, Mississippi Democrat, stood up in the House to denounce the Administration-backed soldiers' vote bill:

"Now who is behind this bill? Who is the chief sponsor of it? The chief publicist is PM, the uptown edition of the Communist Daily Worker that is being financed by the tax-escaping fortune of Marshall Field III, and the chief broadcaster for it is Walter Winchell--alias no telling what."

Prompted Michigan's Republican Clare Hoffman: "Who is he?"

Replied John Rankin: "The little kike I was telling you about the other day, who called this body the 'House of Reprehensibles.' "

This was a new low in demagoguery, even for John Rankin, but in the entire House no one rose to protest.

Everybody knew where Rankin stood, which was four-square against a federal ballot for soldiers, eight-square against the Administration, and, of course, 16-square in favor of the poll-tax, white supremacy, and Southern womanhood. John Rankin, master old-fashioned orator, counted on his corn to hold the House's attention. He was not wrong.

The Democrat. Was there any question about John Rankin being a true Democrat? "I want to clear that up. . . . I voted the Democratic ticket in 1904 when President Roosevelt voted the Republican ticket.* I voted the Democratic ticket when Mr. Knox was running on the Republican ticket. I voted the Democratic ticket when the Taft administration was going down to defeat with Secretary Stimson as a Republican in the Cabinet. I voted the Democratic ticket when Mr. Ickes was a Bull Mooser. I voted the Democratic ticket when Harry Hopkins was a Socialist.* I do not want any fly-by-night or fair-weather Democrats trying to tell me how to vote."

The Constitutionalist. This was the kind of political oratory that the House ate up. But the big point John Rankin wanted to get across was that he opposed the federal ballot--he called it a "bobtailed monstrosity"--because it was unconstitutional. His voice quavered, and his lean finger pointed toward the skylight as he talked of the Constitution. Nothing else would sway John Rankin. "When my conscience is clear . . . I am not afraid of all the forces of evil, everything from Drew Pearson to PM and back to Wendell Will--ah, Walter Winchell." He closed by reciting the whole of Invictus, and as he came to the final "I am the captain of my soul" his voice dropped to the stentorian stage whisper of the ancient ham actor. As he trudged up the aisle to his seat, with the conscious humility of a great performer, the House rose and gave him prolonged applause.

Why this tribute to the House's most unashamed demagogue? One reason: the House admires oratory, however bad. Another: the House, enraged by Franklin Roosevelt's taunts (TIME, Feb. 7), had its mind made up to smite the President. Only the day before it had refused to stand up and be counted on the soldiers' vote bill. Now, as Republican Leader Joe Martin saw that he had the votes, a roll call was ordered, and the House howled down the Administration-backed Worley bill, 224-to-168. Then it passed the Eastland-Rankin state-ballot measure, 328-to-69.

By 20 Minutes. In the Senate, too, feelings ran high and debate ran low. In a long series of parliamentary maneuvers, as adroit and massive as two battle fleets trying to come to grips only in advantageous position, the two sides jockeyed back & forth, up & down. As the new week began Louisiana's Senator Allen J. Ellender wailed: "I am very much confused. Is it necessary that all the language in the bill make sense?" Senator Arthur Vandenberg complained: "God knows if we facilitate it [the bill] 20 minutes the country will be very much obliged." Soldiers in the gallery laughed and applauded. But they didn't have the vote yet.

* FDR, 22, casting his first presidential ballot, voted for his distant cousin, T. R., "because I thought he was a better Democrat than the Democratic candidate [Alton B. Parker]." * In 1939 before a Senate committee, Harry Hopkins could not remember whether he had ever been a registered Socialist.

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