THE GEORGE NORRIS I KNEW
Neuberger, Richard L.
The George Norris I Knew By RICHARD L. NEUBERGER EDITOR'S NOTE: Richard L. Neuberger digresses from his series of articles on the American outdoors to write this week about the late Sen. George W....
...He asked simple, direct questions...
...He began advocating the TVA in 1923 when he opposed the sale of Muscle Shoals to Henry Ford...
...The President appointed "J...
...He relived the days when he overthrew "Uncle Joe" Cannon...
...At Grand Coulee Dam they shook his hand with tears in their eyes...
...He was considerate to those who worked for him...
...A number of Administration supporters did not want the late J. D. Ross to be the first director of the Bonneville Power Authority...
...George W. Norris, who was one of his close friends...
...I am at the end of the trail...
...Norris went back a long way, to the time of Bryan and T. R. and McKinley...
...Norris was no breast-beater making loud noises...
...I have come home to tell you the truth," he began...
...He trusted people who were open-handed and outspoken...
...Cheering commenced...
...In 1940 he spoke in my home state of Oregon and in the neighboring state of Washington...
...C. E. S. Wood, who fought in the Indian Wars with Custer and Kit Carson, tell me that Norris had been "the standard-bearer of liberalism's guidons for three generations of Americans...
...People in every state wrote to Norris about injustices and wrongs...
...He said this would have to be the last war or we all were finished...
...The Senator talked of his past...
...There were tears in the old Senator's eyes, too, as he looked down at the great dam, the largest power project on earth...
...He changed his mind about this war and was an early advocate of American intervention...
...This is the fulfillment of my dream," he said, and I am sure he remembered those days when almost alone in Congress he fought for Government development of America's rivers...
...Farmers drove all night from hundreds of miles away to see and hear him...
...I looked back as we left the office...
...Innuendo and double meaning were not in his arsenal...
...Some of them had been active in the progressive movement for five decades and shaking hands with Norris was the crowning event of their lives...
...When La Follette died, Norris said of him, "He was the leader of the advancing column of hope and progress...
...Against World War I Of all his deeds I think the old Senator was most proud of his vote in 1917 against American participation in the first World War...
...In the gathering dusk his white hair stood up like a plume...
...To the end of his career he maintained an interest in the family of the late Sen...
...He spoke of TVA and Bonneville and Coulee and what they could do for the nation...
...With Fighting Bob' The Tennessee Valley Authority -is Norris's monument...
...J...
...He and his wife often stopped at tourist homes and boarding houses on their way between Nebraska and Washington...
...Oregon, where I live, is 1,700 miles from Nebraska, yet men and women on Oregon's farms looked to Norris for help and assistance...
...THROUGHOUT the nation George W. Norris was a symbol of hope and progress to millions of men and women...
...Somewhere near the back of the hall a man applauded...
...This event made a vivid impression on his mind...
...He tired as the shadows of late afternoon lined the park outside...
...He looked out over the silent throng, a white-haired old man in a neat black suit and shoestring tie...
...You boys and the rest all over the country will have to carry on...
...He believed that democracy was part of one's daily life...
...He supported the President's foreign policy on through from the fall of France...
...I remember sitting with him in the den of his little stucco house in McCook and hearing that tale—of how he had been sent German Iron Crosses in the mail and how he had gone back to Nebraska to report to his people...
...The applause grew, then the crowd was on its feet...
...Norris Dam on the Clinch River is now one of the TVA's key units, although the old man declined to attend the dedication of a bust of himself at the site of the project...
...Lane of Oregon, who was one of the four in the Senate who stood with Norris and the elder La Follette against war in 1917...
...He shunned display and protocal...
...They felt that in him they had a ready champion...
...Neither did he view the functioning of democracy from Olympian heights, as do some liberals...
...I once heard Col...
...The elder La Follette stood at his side for many years...
...In 1936 Neuberger wrote a series of articles for Harper's Magazine about Norris entitled "A Politician Unafraid," and is coauthor of Integrity, a biography of Norris...
...The elder La Follette never saw the TVA built...
...Dilliard and I got up to leave...
...Norris disliked slickness...
...He had no chauffeur...
...I spent the afternoon in his office with him and Irving Dilliard of the St...
...No one would dare introduce him...
...He rented a hall at Lincoln and walked onto the platform all alone...
...D." wore high shoes, suspenders, and big hats...
...D." 'The Last War' The last time I saw Norris was in the Summer of 1942, shortly before I went to Alaska with the U. S. Army Engineers...
...My part in the struggle is over...
...He stood again with "the little group of willful men...
...Another man took it up...
...Yet that mind was never closed...
...In that moment," Norris told me, "I felt repaid for all the agony, for all the abuse, for all the vilification...
...Goodby, Irving," Norris said, "Goodby, Dick...
...Louis Post-Dispatch, who is now also in the Army...
...asked Norris...
...D.' is right down the line for public power, isn't he...
Vol. 8 • September 1944 • No. 38
