THE CONGRESS: Boomerang & Blackjack

Boomerang & Blackjack

"Mr. Chairman, may I ask a question?"

All eyes turned to the plump, cherubic-looking young speaker seated at one end of the long green table in the House caucus room.

"Who is the gentleman?" growled Chair-man John J. O'Connor of the House Rules Committee.

"I," said Thomas Gardiner Corcoran, RFCounsel and prime legislative agent of President Roosevelt, "am the accused."

Brewster's Millions. As Republican Governor of Maine from 1925 to 1929. Ralph Owen Brewster made his political name & fame by a dogged fight against the Insull power interests in that state. Elected to the house last autumn as an avowed enemy of Power, he helped wangle a $36,000,000 works relief grant from the Democratic Administration to harness the tides below Passamaquoddy Bay in his district with a great government power dam. Yet in the House teller vote on the Public Utility Bill's so-called "death sentence" (TIME, July 8), Representative Brewster sided with Power, against the President. That startling inconsistency left the man from Maine with a great deal of explaining to do.

Last fortnight toothy, slack-jawed Representative Brewster uprose in the House to offer his explanation to colleagues already tense with excitement over rumors of undue White House pressure in behalf of the "death sentence.'' His voice throbbing with righteous indignation; Representative Brewster bluntly declared that Presidential Agent Thomas G. Corcoran had approached him just before the teller vote, threatened to stop construction on Passamaquoddy Dam unless he voted for the "death sentence." Inference was that his prompt vote against it had been a righteous protest against such a flagrantly unrighteous threat.

Amid a sympathetic uproar, the House authorized its Rules Committee to investigate not only Representative Brewster's charge but all other charges of "undue influence" exerted in connection with the Public Utility Bill by either Power or President.

Handsome, 34-year-old Tom Corcoran, protege of Felix Frankfurter, is more to the President than a brilliant and useful young legalite. He is also a charming, cultured, liberal Harvardman whose ability to sing and accompany himself on accordion and piano has won the White House heart. It was, therefore, a breath-bated moment when beefy, domineering Chairman O'Connor began his investigation last week by barking in response to Tom Corcoran's request for a question:

"The gentleman will not ask questions until he has been recognized by the chair. Mr. Brewster is recognized.''

Representative Brewster sat down directly across the table from Chairman O'Connor and, with many a nervous grimace, proceeded to tell his story. In his pursuit of the Quoddy millions, said he, he had been vastly aided by Mr. Corcoran, government agent delegated to smooth the dam's legal pathway. In return he had listened sympathetically to Mr. Corcoran's earnest pleas for his support of the Public Utility Bill. But the bill was so drastic, so complex, that he had been unable to make up his mind until Mr. Corcoran threatened him just before the vote.