WASHINGTON REPORT

...President Eisenhower's devotion to golf and fishing do not disturb those who know that the Presidency is an exacting job and that each human being must find relaxation in his own fashion...

...The caucus is proving most helpful to liberals...

...Taft vs...

...It also means, for example, that vital government plans for expanding aluminum production by encouraging new competitors were tossed out the window, for the time being anyway...

...Herbert Lehman of New York, who defeated John Foster Dulles in a special election in 1949, and the impact is fairly impressive...

...There is nothing conspiratorial or secretive about it, and the Northern, Western, and Border-State Senators who join the sessions have an opportunity for discussion of issues in an informal and mutually advantageous way...

...When McCarthy makes an irresponsible attack on Great Britain on the Senate floor, even the liberals resist the temptation to challenge or assail him...

...Joseph R. McCarthy...

...Liberal Caucus Every other Monday night, in Washington, about 20 Democratic liberal Senators meet to discuss upcoming legislation and plan strategy...

...The answer is No: Taft was simply doing what, except when he is running for the Presidency, comes naturally to him...

...The Democratic Senate "youth movement" began in 1948, when such fresh new members as Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, Estes Ke-fauver of Tennessee, and Paul Douglas of Illinois joined the team...

...One reason this was possible, of course, was the fact that the Democratic leaders had plenty of committee seats to parcel out...

...McCarthy had tried to terrorize James A. Wechsler, editor of the New York Post, because of Wechsler's attacks on McCarthy techniques...

...Symington had an established national reputation as an administrator...

...Freshmen G.O.P...

...The latter feel helpless to direct the inquiry along more constructive lines...

...On the Republican side, it is a pleasure to add Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, elected in 1948 and a credit to the state ever since...

...Under such circumstances the "staff," rather than the President, makes the decisions...

...Everett Dirksen of Illinois, the Senate's most mellifluous orator, is a cunning floor tactician, though he may be too conspicuously shallow to command long-range respect...

...Sometimes an outside expert is invited to lead the conversation on some major issue...

...Five of the ten top-ranking Democratic seniors listed only three years ago in the Congressional Directory have departed— Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee, Elmer Thomas of Oklahoma, Millard Tydings of Maryland, Tom Con-nally of Texas, Elbert Thomas of Utah...

...One must include, as ranking members of the "youth movement" on the Democratic side, two members elected in 1950—Thomas C. Hennings of Missouri and A. S. Mike Monroney of Oklahoma...

...Millard Tydings in Maryland and William Benton in Connecticut are proof...

...Noticeably absent in their floor speeches is any attack upon McCarthy's techniques and attitudes they all detest...

...Wayne Morse of Oregon, Independent...

...Two of the top Senate official iposts are held by the 40-year-old presiding officer, Vice-President Richard M. Nixon, and Lyndon Johnson of Texas, who neglects to list his birthdate in the Congressional Directory and made the grade as Democratic floor leader after only four years of service—an unprecedented feat under our party system...

...Wheland found it impossible to get satisfactory credit terms...

...Most McCarthy triumphs come by default...

...Hard-Money" Casualties Treasury Secretary Humphrey's inflation of interest rates means much more than an increased load for taxpayers and all kinds of borrowers...

...Some notion of the extent of farm discontent with GOP performance to date can be had from examining the skyrocketing membership rolls of the progressive National Farmers Union...

...Youth—as reckoned in politics—is commanding influence and power...

...These relatively new Democratic Senators are a better-than-average lot, capable of making a genuine contribution to American life...

...a remarkable group of new Democratic Senators was elected...

...So headline - grabbing Committee hearings are held, and the Democratic members sit silent or find themselves forced to join in rebuking witnesses who refuse to answer questions about possible Communist affiliations...

...The Democratic National Committee has never worked out any master plan for handling McCarthy, although for more than three years this has obviously been one of the party's most urgent requirements...

...He is, in addition, master in the field of Senate colloquy, so skilled and ruthless in insinuation, so adroit and slippery in his mental footwork, that even the ablest debaters hesitate to attack him in the forensic cockpit...

...Irving M. Ives of New York, although he is termed by some a "liberal...

...Each of the Democratic freshmen, except Gore, was promptly awarded a major committee assignment instead of being buried in minor posts...

...Eisenhower's tremendous victory...

...Its current growth is the most spectacular in history...

...Not Sen...

...When you honestly believe that the United Nations is no good and the North Atlantic alliance not much better, you should mention these beliefs to the people...

...Put all the groups together, add the distinguished Sen...

...Robert Kerr's ill-fated bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1952, is reported to have taken charge of the budding White House dreams of Sen...

...Jackson, Gore, Kennedy, and Mansfield all had experience in the House of Representatives...

...The current demand for aluminum and aluminum alloys greatly exceeds the supply...

...Taft There was great discussion, a few weeks ago, about whether Sen...

...The only non-Democrat in the group is Sen...

...Mobilization officials had scheduled a "third round" of aluminum-capacity expansion, and plans were made for the Wheland Company of Chattanooga, Tenn., and Olin Industries to enter the field to compete with the giant Aluminum Company of America and its two postwar rivals, Reynolds and Kaiser...

...Not even Sen...

...he works on legislation as hard as Taft, and the Senate frequently rewards men who are willing to work...

...In extenuation it may be said that nobody in the Democratic Party is doing an organized job of getting Senators briefed on McCarthy accusations...

...A ranking White House assistant told friends, off the record, that he was shocked when he read the transcript revealing how Sen...

...degree from Southwest Texas State Teachers College in 1930...

...Each, in his day, was a powerful major committee chairman, but their days have passed...

...the margin of Republican majority is only one...

...So all his innate honesty bubbled up, and he spoke his mind about the problems still entangling us after many months...

...Frank Carlson of Kansas is also energetic, and he has the advantage of his close connection with the Man from Abilene...

...The process picked up momentum By Wiilard Shelton last year despite Mr...

...In short, high interest rates knocked out industrial expansion instead of doing what the orthodox bankers claim they do—attract "risk capital...

...Price Daniel does not claim to be progressive, but he is undoubtedly able...

...he served under Harry S. Truman as Secretary of Air, chief of the National Security Resources Board, "cleanup" director of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation...

...It may be, however, that some less notorious Republicans, men from the Class of 1950, will prove to have more staying power...

...McCarthy and Jen-ner, of course, are well advertised...

...McCarthy has proved a formidable antagonist to those who directly challenge him...

...James Duff of Pennsylvania, inherently a powerful fighter, could conceivably break loose and cut himself in as a major force...

...There were a few G.O.P...

...Senators elected in 1952 have not had much chance to throw their weight around, but there are rising powers from the groups elected in 1946 and 1950...

...Among the Democrats, particularly, there have been substantial Senate changes...

...Stuart Symington, Missouri Democrat...

...A bit unfortunate, perhaps, when the speaker happens to be floor leader for the Eisenhower Administration—but "that's Taft...

...A similar group, in fact, then did...

...other Senators think they have to show up for legislative committee sessions and debate such weighty problems as housing, farm problems, foreign affairs, military appropriations—but not McCarthy...

...Taft's foreign policy viewpoints, as expressed in his "go it alone" speech, were precisely those he stated in his pre-convention book on American policy...

...Friends of The Progressive who encountered Adlai Stevenson in the Middle East report his general position "is being modified in the direction of Bill (Justice William O.) Douglas and that he is coming to the conclusion that 'neutralism' is not the enemy of the United States that it is pictured back home...

...There are Senate staff employes who privately say that Welker, although a Republican primitive, will eventually rise to an impressive role of leadership...

...But another is the undoubted fact that the freshmen Senators are an unusually able lot...

...But fundamentally he has a notion that when you make a political promise, you should try to keep it...

...He feels no obligation to do any Senate work except hunt headlines...

...One must add, also, Herman Welker of Idaho, whose latent force, like Duff's, is enormous and who may suddenly find avenues of expression...

...More frequently, one of the Senators takes the initiative himself...

...the Olin Industries decided that entrance into the aluminum field would be "undesirable...

...But that was in 1947, and it is hard to think of any Republican Senators who now feel so sharply about their differences with the Old Guard that they would voluntarily associate themselves with a bi-partisan, self-declared liberal bloc...

...Johnson, it appears from his self-written Congressional Directory biography, was never actually born...

...Unsolved Problem One problem the Democratic liberal caucus has not been able to solve is what to do about Sen...

...Francis Case of South Dakota will be, with luck, a real power...

...And In This Corner Republicans, too, have had a Senate youth movement, although not, perhaps, so happy a one...

...So the Democrats, perhaps with at least a partly-correct feeling that McCarthy is President Eisenhower's problem baby, tend to lay off...

...Albert Gore, though lacking what is technically called a "major" committee assignment, got what he probably needed most, a seat on the Public Works Committee which has a lot to say about authorization of federal funds for the Tennessee Valley Authority...

...One source extremely close to the Ohio Senator remarked that it isn't just an "impression" that Taft, when he cuts loose on foreign policy, seems to be "arguing with himself...

...The sad thing is that, even a few years ago, a similar group could have included some liberal Republicans...

...Taft deliberately sought to provoke a "big break" with President Eisenhower by making a "go-it-alone" speech on Korea and other foreign affairs problems...

...What does disturb many is Mr...

...Private comments by White House staff members are of little importance, however, so long as their Chief carefully refuses to utter a syllable of public criticism...

...Senate, where power is still wielded by Robert A. Taft, but it is a fact that great changes are taking place in the august upper chamber of Congress...

...He stands "arguing with himself" to settle his own doubts, before an audience, and he honestly worries about campaign promises...

...his speech on offshore oil was generally credited with being the best argument produced by the "states' rights" group...

...he lists life as beginning for him with a B.S...

...He is aware, as well, that the Republicans promised during the campaign, by unmistakable implication, to get a quick peace for us in Korea, "liberate" the satellite nations of Eastern Europe, and cut the budget and spending...

...Even allowing for the proposed cut-back in Air Force procurement, which reduces prospective military demands, some expansion in capacity is conceded to be necessary...

...Eisenhower's insistence on handling policy disputes on a "staff basis," exactly as a commanding general handles them, with single-page summaries eventually being produced by the "staff" for the President's acceptance, which invariably seems forthcoming...

...the bones and picked carcasses of former Sens...

...George D. Aiken of Vermont, although in 1947 the urgency of his disagreements with the Old Guard seemed compelling...

...Among the reasons, as I have reported in earlier issues, is plain political fear...

...The Ohio Senator, this friend says, will actually quit a prepared text he has written himself if he suddenly develops the thought that the paragraph he has just read may need some "qualification...

...Senators in the 80th Congress, beginning in 1947, who felt entirely at home in talking over major principles with liberal members of the Democratic Party...

...The plans for Wheland and Olin were shattered, however, when Humphrey raised interest rates...

...Because McCarthy's staff is made up of his own men rather than the Committee's, he is better informed, in advance, of the upcoming testimony of many witnesses than other Committee members are...

...For about six months out of every four years, when Taft is dreaming of the White House, he can politick with the greatest of ease...

...Clark Clifford, former White House counselor who managed Sen...

...The group includes Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington, Jack Kennedy of Massachusetts, Albert Gore of Tennessee, Mike Mansfield of Montana, Stuart Symington of Missouri, even Price Daniel of Texas...

...The M^ashington Wire Democratic National Committee Chairman Stephen Mitchell's plan for a 1954 "national convention," to "pull the party together" on policy matters, struck a rock when most Democratic members of Congress insisted that such a convention would merely emphasize differences between the liberal wing and the Southern conservatives...