MY CONGRESSIONAL PIN-UP
Neuberger, Richard L.
My Congressional Pin-up By RICHARD L. NEUBERGER Tacoma, Wash. SIX years ago in The Progressive I nominated the delegation in the Senate and House from the state of Washington as the outstanding...
...I also have been following debates and votes and bills, introduced...
...He and Holmes are the sole Republicans in the group...
...Hugh De Lacy, Representative from Seattle, is one of the most controversial figures in the House of Representatives...
...He has been one of the principal enemies of the aluminum monopoly wielded by the Aluminum Company of America...
...Mike Mansfield, California with Reps...
...He is a bachelor and considered one of the capital's most enticing matrimonial catches...
...Savage, unlike some who rose from the ranks of labor, is true to this workman's background...
...The men already mentioned are all Democrats...
...Some liberals criticize him for voting so closely with the leftist Marcantonio of New York on many major questions...
...He comes from Montana and he is a son of Harry B. Mitchell, president of the U. S. Civil Service Commission...
...Only 40 years old, Magnuson, or "Maggie" as he is called, is one of the most popular political figures in Washington history...
...George Norris or "Fighting Bob" La Follette in the group, although some day John Coffee may rank as one of the country's foremost progressives of the past decade...
...Charles R. Savage, Representative from Shelton, has one of the most spectacular and unique labor backgrounds of any member of either House...
...BUT these outstanding liberals are only individuals...
...When Representative Lyndon Johnson of Texas visited Seattle, he said he had never found a politician as well liked in his district as "Maggie" was...
...He now is seeking a development authority which will help, financially and otherwise, in the establishment of veterans on Alaskan land...
...He is rapidly ascending to a position in the lower House comparable to that occupied in the upper chamber by George Norris...
...It is not the same delegation that it was six years ago, so far as personnel is concerned...
...Coffee has been vigilant in demonstrating the intrigue of the big oil companies in bolstering local tyrants in South America and the Middle East...
...Wayne Morse, New York with Sen...
...George Aiken, Wisconsin with Sen...
...His reputation for fearlessness has made him leader of the liberal Congressional bloc...
...Holmes has insisted that the Government build transmission lines so that all the people can get the full benefit of the Coulee hydroelectric output...
...And on the score of long-range consistency and dependability, I am certain that the Senate and House delegations of the state of Washington are the most reliable in Congress...
...Jackson opposed the Dies Committee methods and voted consistently against funds for these witch-hunts...
...He exposed the commercial interests behind these policies...
...Walt Horan, Representative from Wentachee, is the most conservative member of the Washington congressional delegation...
...Holmes, a former college professor, is also a livestock rancher...
...When other Congressmen hesitate, Coffee will wade into a touchy issue...
...Savage has been an officer of both AFL and CIO loggers' unions, and he has helped build many power dams...
...A graduate of Yale Law School and a veteran of the first World War, Coffee will probably be either Governor or Senator some day...
...Horan follows GOP policy, as set down by Joe Martin, on most issues...
...Along with Magnuson, Jackson has been the principal Congressional authority on Alaska...
...The state of Washington, out in the extreme northwestern corner of the nation, has the liberal voting habit ingrained pretty strongly at this moment...
...Yet it is almost as progressive as it was in 1939, despite this nearly complete overturn in individual members...
...He has worked at nearly every job in the lumber industry, including that of high-climber...
...Coffee is an outstanding champion of public ownership, a position he fills naturally, for his own city of Tacoma, with a municipal power plant, has the lowest light bills in the United States...
...But the fact remains that since his election in 1944, he has been one of the most militant fighters for progressive legislation...
...He is only 33 years old...
...De Lacy has not hesitated to go beneath the surface of important issues...
...SIX years ago in The Progressive I nominated the delegation in the Senate and House from the state of Washington as the outstanding liberal delegation in the American Congress...
...No crusade for the underprivileged takes place without his support...
...His secretary, Paul Olsen, is also an outstanding liberal who has been active in the labor movement...
...He is also a conservationist who realizes that protection of our dwindling virgin timber is in the real interests of the lumber workers...
...He also made a series of intel-adopted the ardent, almost servile, Anglomania, that As a member of the Mead War Investigating Committee, Mitchell has fought to retain industry on the West Coast, rather than allowing the Eastern monopolies to recover their former stranglehold...
...former Sen...
...Horan had a distinguished record in World War I. He is a fruitgrower and packer, Wenatchee being the apple capital of the Inland Empire...
...1 liberal outfit on Capitol Hill...
...Martin Dies...
...The utilities would like to distribute this energy...
...Indignant railroad workers sent De Lacy sub rosa information to add to this expose...
...I realize that certain states have notable individual liberals—Vermont with Sen...
...De Lacy's secretary, Richard Sel-lar, is nationally known for the fact that in 1936 he led the famous Guild strike which closed the Hearst Post-Intelligencer in Seattle for nearly 100 days...
...Coffee led the long fight to withdraw recognition from Franco Spain...
...When the country was indignant over the fact that returning war heroes were being transported transcontinental in dirty day coaches, De Lacy showed that railroad presidents and lumber • barons were using private cars...
...He is only 38 years old...
...On Labor Day Mitchell said that the workers of the nation had a right to share in the exorbitant profits earned by management during the war...
...Bob La Fol-lette...
...Now that I am back in civilian life after somewhat more than three years in the Army, I have been reading the Congressional Record again...
...Let's scan the roster, beginning with the Senators: Warren G. Magnuson, senior Senator from Washington, is the second youngest member of the upper chamber...
...Jim Murray and Rep...
...Perhaps there is no Sen...
...But by and large, considered as a unit, I would field this delegation against that from any other of the 48 states...
...SO there it is—Washington's delegation to Capitol Hill...
...Idaho with Sen...
...matter, who is...
...By this I mean all-around delegation, considered from the senior Senator on through the most junior Congressman...
...Harley Kilgore...
...He formerly had served as Wallgren's secretary...
...Hugh B. Mitchell, junior Senator from Washington, is the youngest member of the U. S. Senate...
...Not all the men are liberal on all questions...
...Mitchell was appointed to the vacancy left when Sen...
...In addition, his scholarly and well-documented speeches have pleasantly surprised even his most bitter critics...
...Homer Bone, now a Federal circuit judge, and former Sen...
...As chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, Jackson has advocated increasing benefits and privileges for the minority from which this continent was wrested by the whites...
...Lewis Schwellenbach, now Secretary of Labor...
...He sponsored repeal of the un-democratic Chinese exclusion laws, which kept our Chinese allies at complete arm's length...
...Hal Holmes, Representative from Ellensburg, is one of the two Republicans in the Washington state congressional delegation...
...Henry M. Jackson, Representative from Everett, represents one of America's great lumber districts in the House...
...Wallgren became Governor of Washington...
...They do not constitute an entire Congressional delegation...
...John M. Coffee, Representative from Tacoma, is the most consistently liberal member of the House of Representatives...
...He is not as liberal aa the Democrats but he has opposed Dies Committee continuations, and he has stood up against local power companies in his district to favor Federal construction of transmission lines...
...Recently he took up the fight against the Army and Navy practice of granting terminal leave to officers but not to enlisted men...
...For that...
...And I still come to the same conclusion of six years ago, viz., that the state of Washington has the most consistently liberal and progressive delegation on Capitol Hill...
...Mon Wallgren, now Governor of Washington...
...Robert F. Wagner, West Virginia with Sen...
...The appointment of a comparative political unknown originally antagonized Washington voters, but Mitchell has proved a pleasant surprise...
...He told the House how the president of the Great Northern had gone to Glacier National Park in a private car, while the same line was hauling war heroes in coaches...
...He started off by sponsoring a bill for a Columbia Valley Authority, and he soon will amend the bill to pattern it identically after the TVA...
...When choice war jobs such as OPA and WPB chairmanships went to power-trust people in the Northwest, Jackson led the protests from the liberals...
...This provoked considerable discussion...
...He has been the principal Congressional authority on Latin America and an invaluable exposer of corrupt and un-democratic governments south of the border...
...In some respects the delegation is spotty...
...This youthful outlook has been shown in his stand on many important issues...
...Yet he is not a reactionary and on questions of power he sometimes follows the lead of Rufus Woods, Republican editor of the Wenatchee Daily World, who is the principal newspaper advocate of a Columbia Basin Authority modeled directly on the TVA...
...Jackson supported the bill for the Olympic National Park, although sawmill owners tried to make the workers believe that this conservation measure,, would reduce employment opportunities...
...Mitchell is a former newspaperman...
...Grand Coulee Dam, biggest power project on earth, is in Holmes' constituency...
...The high-climber is the man who scales the trunk of a 225-foot Douglas fir and saws, off the needled top, while the tree sways like a flagpole in a storm...
...He campaigned against shipments of scrap-iron to Imperial Japan...
...Magnuson also distinguished himself for his opposition to the witch hunting methods of former Rep...
...Partisans of other states nominated different delegations and a good time was had by all...
...Both Senators are new and so are four of the six Representatives...
...Glen Taylor, Montana with Sen...
...When he was a Representative, Magnuson was one of the few defenders of the F.C.C...
...Jack recently led a heroic fight to prevent the national vast wartime Merchant Marine from being frittered away to shipping companies for scandalously low prices...
...As I did six years ago in The Progressive, let's look over the Washington delegation and see why it ranks as the No...
...The loggers and sawmill workers have found him an effective champion, despite his youthful years...
...on the committee appointed to investigate that body...
...Jerry Voorhis and George Outland, Oregon with Sen...
...Not only is this true of the present delegation, but it also has such notable recent graduates as former Sen...
Vol. 9 • October 1945 • No. 42
