That Man

He was a wretched, sick and snarling little man. But he had the voice of a brass trumpet blaring venom and racism. "I call upon every red-blooded white man to use any means to keep the nigger away from the polls," he had screamed. He had a name that sounded like the chugging of a bullfrog: Bilbo.

Mississippi voters had chosen him as their U.S. Senator--three times in twelve years they had chosen him. Last week he arrived in Washington to claim the seat to which he was entitled by the vote of the sovereign state of Mississippi.

Such Vile Language. A crowd had gathered on Capitol Hill, in the raw rain. They had begun to arrive early in the morning. Many of them were Negroes, there to see what the U.S. Senate would do about Theodore Gilmore Bilbo. His Republican enemies had sworn they would bar him, figuratively speaking, at the door.

They had the minority report (signed by two of their members) of the Senate's Campaign Expenditures Committee on his 1946 election campaign: "Never to the knowledge of the undersigned has such vile, inflammatory and dangerous language been uttered . . . for the purpose of procuring nomination." The committee's majority report, signed by Democrats, was a whitewash.

They had another report, signed by four Republican members of the War Investigating Committee, which charged that Bilbo had accepted gratuities possibly amounting to as much as $88,000 from Mississippi contractors who obtained Government war work; that he had collected funds from war contractors for the Juniper Grove Baptist Church. The Senators also noted the charge that he had accepted $1,500 to help a drug addict get a narcotics permit.

Said Republicans: Bilbo has violated the Constitution, the Hatch Act, the Criminal Code.

The 550 seats in the galleries were filled. Sightseers sat on the steps, stood jammed along the back and milled around the corridors outside, trying to get in. On the floor below, Senators began to arrive, pumping each other's hands, looking for their desks and seats for their friends. At 18 minutes to noon, Bilbo stumped in--reddish brown suit, sagging paunch, sunken cheeks, hair slicked down on his round skull.

As he advanced, some men turned their backs. He managed to grab the hands of a few and ducked into the Democratic cloakroom. Then he reappeared in the rear of the Chamber, sucking on a cigar, and shook hands with Tennessee's old spoilsman, Kenneth McKellar. The arena was noisy with confusion. On the rostrum Senate Secretary Leslie Biffle banged the little ivory block on the desk of the presiding officer and convened the Senate of the 80th Congress.

Job for Mr. Biffle. Mr. Biffle was scared. He had been around the Senate for some 30 years, but he had the brief job of presiding now because no one else was formally available.

Mr. Biffle got things started all right with the chaplain's prayer. Sixty holdover Senators were in their seats; 36 newly elected Senators waited to be sworn. The reading clerk read the rules, reminding the Chamber that it was the custom to swear in new members alphabetically, in groups of four.

Michigan's Homer Ferguson objected. He moved that Arthur Vandenberg, who was scheduled to take over as president pro tem, be sworn in first. There was an instant flurry of argument. Mr. Biffle ruled that new members would be sworn in one at a time, alphabetically. Connecticut's Raymond Baldwin was sworn.

Bilbo straightened his necktie. He was next. He walked to the center aisle. Mississippi's junior Senator properly should have escorted him. But James O. Eastland, who has even outshouted Bilbo on the subject of white supremacy from time to time, has nothing but hatred for Bilbo (because of patronage squabbles). Bilbo took the arm of a friend, Louisiana's John H. Overton.

"This Cowboy." In the Republicans' plan, Ferguson was now supposed to get the floor and offer a resolution that Bilbo be barred until the Senate was organized. Then they could debate Bilbo's qualifications. But the plan went awry. From a back row, Idaho's Glen Taylor, onetime tent-show player and singing cowboy, bellowed so loud that the flustered Biffle recognized him. Taylor was against seating Bilbo, he declaimed, but he wanted the Senate to go slow. Taylor talked for an hour while Republicans writhed and members wandered into the cloakroom. Bilbo followed, cackling: "The greatest joke is that this nincompoop, this cowboy named Taylor, stole the whole Republican show." Outside, he ran spang into a group of Negroes. He returned to the floor to perch on a seat beside Taylor in silent mockery.

When Taylor finished, Overton took the floor. He moved that Bilbo be allowed to take the oath without prejudice. "What you are trying to do here today is take Bilbo by the heels and drag him out that door there and lynch him." The galleries, reflecting on the lynch record in Bilbo's Mississippi, roared.

Overton recalled acidly that Taft had voted to seat North Dakota's Republican "Wild Bill" Langer four years ago, when Langer was accused of "moral turpitude." Taft prodded Overton with an invitation to lay the Bilbo issue aside long enough to let the other Senators-elect take their seats. But Overton and the Southern Democrats aligned with him would not yield. They held the whip hand, they could delay organization indefinitely. They were going down the line for Bilbo.

Filibuster. Taft, to whom Bilbo was "a disgrace to the Senate," was as stubborn as the Southerners. He rejected any proposal to seat Bilbo now and settle the case later. Recalling the Langer case, he said: "I'd never again vote to seat a man until the issue is settled."

The battle wore on. On at least one skirmishing vote ten Democrats of the 30 seated lined up with Republicans. Bilbo, who once sneered that his enemy Taft was "like a young mocking bird--all mouth and no bird," shuffled into an anteroom, shoulders drooping. But the men who, for their various reasons, supported him, dug in. Oklahoma's white-haired Elmer Thomas, blandly suggesting the absence of a quorum, began a filibuster.

Ultimatum. Ferguson raged; Taft grew grim. At last, Taft made himself heard long enough to call first for a recess until noon of the next day (Saturday). Then, he said in cold anger, he would wait until Monday. And then, "if those who are now blocking the organization of the Senate have not changed their minds, I propose to keep the Senate in session to break this. Use of the filibuster on such an occasion for such an inconsequential purpose is so unjustifiable that if you do not change your minds you are going to face a complete change of the rules of this Senate, face a change that will bring about cloture on any subject. We cannot begin a session facing the threat of a filibuster on every measure we may bring up."

Overton growled: "The Senator from Ohio [Taft] is not yet the whole Senate, no matter what he may think about it." South Carolina's Burnet Maybank shouted hoarsely: "After all, Mississippi is a sovereign state." After all, Bilbo was Mississippi's choice. Bilbo slouched at his old desk, clutching his cigar.

Ellender Yields. Hour after hour, next day, the filibuster rolled on. Ellender and New Mexico's Carl Hatch, author of the act under which Bilbo stood accused, excoriated the Republicans. Taft and Ferguson waited. They had served notice that the Senate would be held in session Saturday night, Sunday, continuously thereafter until the filibuster collapsed.

Late in the afternoon there began an unusual scurrying around on the floor. Senators began to gather in huddles. Minority Leader Alben Barkley lumbered over to the Democratic cloakroom door and talked at length with the man who stood there, just inside, nervously flicking at his lips with a handkerchief--Bilbo.

Ellender had the floor. Barkley went and whispered in his ear. Bilbo opened his door a crack so that he could watch. He watched Ellender yield the floor to Barkley, who promised to give it back if Ellender still wanted it "after he has heard what I have to say."

"Until Such Time." Ponderously Barkley said what he had to say. He was sure the Senate wanted to "compose the situation." Bilbo had been a member for twelve years. Now "the Senator-elect from Mississippi is an ill man. He has an infection of the mouth. Physicians pronounced it cancer." Bilbo closed the door.

Barkley's voice rumbled on. Bilbo had already had one operation. He had told Barkley the night before that he had to have another.

For the first time in two days the Senate chamber and the crowded galleries were still. Bilbo's colleagues had long been aware of his illness.

Possibly he has "a malignant growth" in one cheek, Barkley continued to explain. At any rate, Mr. Bilbo must return to Mississippi. He might be there as long as two months. "I ask unanimous consent that his credentials lie on the table without prejudice and without action until such time as Mr. Bilbo may return."

Instantly Taft was on his feet to agree. The situation was "composed." Bilbo shuffled down the corridors. Behind him the Senate, suddenly in jovial humor, began swearing in the rest of its new members. Up to the desk Taft escorted his colleague, John Bricker, who blushed like a June bride.

The Republicans had already selected their majorities for the Senate's reduced number of committees, settling chairmanship rows in the process. The Democrats would soon get around to it, and the Senate would be ready for business.

That evening Bilbo locked the door of his old Senate office and next day headed south for Mississippi, where even the frogs chug his name, and whence, some day, he may--or may not--return.

The day Senator Bilbo left Washington was, appropriately, a day dedicated to the memory of a great Negro. By act of the 79th Congress, January 5 (the day of his death) had been designated as George Washington Carver Day. The son of a slave, Carver became a world-famed scientist (researches on soil, dehydrated foods, peanuts, plastics, etc.) who had benefited the economy of the entire South. He was a man of whom the U.S. was proud; some day the South would be proud of him too.

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