The Pittsburgh Press (February 5, 1944)
Soldier vote test set back
Senate unable to round up quorum for session
Washington (UP) –
Too many Senators played hooky from the Saturday session scheduled for today, and the Senate had to call the whole thing off and postpone further consideration of the soldier vote controversy until Monday.
The convening hour of 11:00 a.m. ET found only seven Senators on the floor. The initial roll call was answered by 37 Senators as they filed in during the slow calling of names. A later roll call of the absentees brought the total number of Senators answering their names to 43.
This was still short of a quorum, so Democratic Leader Alben W. Barkley (D-KY) moved for a recess until Monday noon.
Senator Barkley had previously expressed hope that the administration’s federal ballot bill could finally be acted on by tonight, shunting back to the House the issue. The House had rejected Thursday night the administration federal-ballot proposal by a 51-vote margin.
Showdown next week
The showdown now due Monday or Tuesday will involve another attempt of the Republican-Southern Democrat coalition to limit the voting to regular state ballots.
There is little chance of a Senate filibuster to delay further final action as a limitation on debate was agreed to earlier this week to speed action on amendments to the pending Green-Lucas federal bill.
A comparison of the official list of those answering the quorum call with yesterday’s test vote on the Taft amendment to restrict use of a federal ballot showed that the state ballot forces had a margin of two on the floor as today’s session began.
Twenty-three of those who voted for the Taft amendment yesterday were recorded as being present. Twenty-one of those who voted with the administration yesterday were recorded as being present.
Use day to clear up mail
Senator Barkley told reporters that he could have obtained a quorum but it would have been difficult to hold the Senators on the floor throughout the day because they traditionally use the Saturday recess to clear up accumulated mail in their office.
The official roll call showed the state ballot forces on the floor included 12 Republicans and 11 Southern Democrats. They were:
REPUBLICAN: Ball, Brewster, Brooks, Bushfield, Butler, Holman, Moore, Nye, Robertson, Taft, Wherry and White.
DEMOCRATS: Bailey, Byrd, Caraway, Eastland, George, Hill, McClellan, McKellar, O’Daniel, Overton and Smith.
The opponents of the Taft amendment recorded present included 14 Democrats, six Republicans and one Progressive. They were:
DEMOCRATS: Barkley, Clark (ID), Clark (MO), Green, Guffey, Hayden, Jackson, Kilgore, Lucas, Murray, Stewart, Tunnell, Tydings and Wagner.
REPUBLICANS: Austin, Danaher, Davis, Ferguson, Tobey and Vandenberg.
PROGRESSIVE: La Follette.