Forgive, But Don't Forget

North Carolina's long, lantern-jawed Josiah ("Holy Joe") Bailey, 71, an anti-New Deal Senator who once edited a Bible magazine, still tries to be forgiving. Last week Harold Ickes sorely tried Joe Bailey's patience by loosening a characteristic blast against a Bailey Senate amendment. Up rose the Senator for a 6,800-word reply. Its burden:

"I think [Harold Ickes] is a very able man and a first-class Secretary of the Interior . . . but he is the type of man who always goes to extremes. . . . He cannot help it, and I forgive him. . . . I think I might preach a little sermon to the Senate on that subject. The Lord's Prayer, of which I would always speak reverently, contains the expression: 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.'

"I think this means that if a friend of yours simply by nature is quarrelsome and offensive, and you feel that he would bite you if you should get into difficulty with him, you should look into the situation, and see if that is his nature. If he has been that way always and is incurable, forgive him. . . .

"I went down to see him not long ago, and took lunch with him. I think he is a pretty good executive, but a mighty poor talker. . . . He thinks he can convince the American people that I am a rascal. Well, I have always thought I could outcuss him, but I was too much of a gentleman to try. . . . And that, Mr. President, is enough for Mr. Ickes."

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