U.S. At War: Mister Speaker

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Powerful. Sam Rayburn's job has often been called the "second most powerful job in the nation." From the days of Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, the German Lutheran pastor who presided over Congress' first sessions in New York, Speakers of the House have written their will and words into U.S. history. Some of the mighty:

—Gaunt Henry Clay, only man who ever stepped into the Speakership the day he entered Congress, was the first to crack the whip over the House, the first to organize it firmly.

—James Knox Polk, who guided the House in the hectic Jacksonian era, took more abuse and needling than any other Speaker, before or since. Polk put his, and Jackson's, program through Congress and graduated to the Presidency.

—Bearded James Gillespie Elaine rose to the Speakership in 1869, in a year when only two-fifths of the House members were holdovers. He organized the House on strict party lines, held unquestioned leadership.

—Of "Uncle Joe" Cannon, who held the Speakership from 1903-10, a minority member truly said: "I have seen him wield more power than the President." Uncle Joe owed much of his power to Maine's resolute Tom Reed, who had so rigged House procedure (the famed Reed's Rules) that the Speaker became, in effect, a dictator. Uncle Joe reaped the whirlwind in the spirited "revolution of 1910," when the House, under the prodding of a young Representative from Nebraska named George Norris, rewrote the rules.

Once the rigid rules were broken, Speakers were forced to wield power by tact, persuasion and favors. "Nick" Longworth kept a firm grip on the House through shrewd committee maneuvers; Texas' Jack Garner held sway by means of his long seniority and experience.

The Compromiser. No one, in the whole 155-year history of the Speakership, held it in a more difficult time than Sam Rayburn. Some Washington observers have called him "the greatest compromiser since Henry Clay." But Henry Clay compromised on issues; Sam Rayburn works to bring about compromise among factions. His technique is something to watch.

A short, stocky man with an almost evanescent fringe of white hair around his bald head, he spends much time leaning on the railing in the rear of the House. There, and in the cloakrooms and offices, he buttonholes his colleagues, lobbying for legislation which he feels must pass, sympathizing, advising, counseling. Sam's approach is disarmingly personal; when all other arguments fail, he says to a recalcitrant legislator: "You will be doing me a big personal favor if you vote for this." His difficulties are immense. The White House has been taking on more & more power for a decade. Sam Rayburn's job is to translate into Congressional action the will of a President who has frequently regarded Congress with cheerful contempt.