‘Removed’ or ‘resigned’ –
Court battle echo heard in Guffey’s case
Southern Democrats win as Senator leaves campaign job
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington –
An angry echo of the battle over President Roosevelt’s 1937 Supreme Court reorganization bill sounded in the Senate today as Senator Joseph F. Guffey (D-PA) charged that he had been removed as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
His statement was in contrast to an earlier announcement by Senate Democratic Leader Alben W. Barkley (D-KY) that the Pennsylvanian had “resigned” the committee chairmanship.
Talks fourth term
Mr. Guffey was a notable figure in the 1939-40 pre-convention campaign which assured a third term, nomination for Mr. Roosevelt. He was the earliest and has been the most insistent Senate advocate of a fourth term.
His “removal” from a position of only moderate prestige at most may be viewed by many persons as a conservative Democratic protest against an accomplished third term and a projected fourth.
But Congressional veterans explain there is little if any anti-fourth-term fuel in the Senate fire blazing around Mr. Guffey today.
Aim at associates
Southern Senators may not be noisily enthusiastic about Mr. Roosevelt’s renomination, but they will go along with it. They have proclaimed open season, however, on some of Mr. Roosevelt’s spokesmen and associates and they believe they have Mr. Guffey transfixed finally in their sights.
Mr. Guffey, a frequent White House spokesman, first offended some of his colleagues Aug. 20, 1937, in a radio address in which he said that Democrats who refused to support the court bill were “ingrates” who by implication, had no place in the Democratic Party.
In a session of stormy protest, Senator Joseph C. O’Mahoney (D-WY) and others who had opposed the court bill, denounced Mr. Guffey in the Senate and demanded that he be removed as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Named by Barkley
But Mr. Guffey had been named to that position by Mr. Barkley and the administration had sufficient
Mr. Bailey said looking straight at Mr. Guffey:
Pennsylvania has produced some lofty men. Ben Franklin, William Penn – and then it has produced some others – Thad Stevens, Boies Penrose, Mr. (William S.) Vare and the Junior Senator from Pennsylvania.
But Mr. Guffey held on and Mr. Barkley made no effort to remove him until last week when it was disclosed that in seeking a job in the District of Columbia government for a Russian-born friend, Dr. Eugene de Savitsch, Mr. Guffey had threatened the District commissioners with a Senate investigation unless his man was put on the payroll.
Mr. Byrd charged immediately that the Pennsylvanian was using the prestige of his office to make “reprehensible” patronage demands upon officials here. Saturday Mr. Byrd predicted that Mr. Guffey would be removed from his campaign chairmanship if he did not first resign.
Guffey’s status uncertain
The Senator’s status just now is somewhat uncertain. He told questioners that he would have no comment at present “on the action of Senator Barkley in removing me as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.” Mr. Barkley said merely that Mr. Guffey “had resigned.”
In any event, it appears that Mr. Guffey is or soon will be an ex-chairman. Most prominently mentioned to succeed him is Mr. O’Mahoney.