National Affairs: Prayer Unanswered

The Senate's good humor (see above) did not last long.

As soon as the Chamber was organized, the Republicans began doling out the patronage jobs which fell to them. Out went Senate Secretary Leslie Biffle, to be replaced by sharp-faced Carl Loeffler, who started as a page boy 57 years ago; he had served the Republicans as minority secretary. Biffle will now serve the Democrats as minority secretary.

Then peppery Kenneth Wherry, majority whip, nominated the Rev. Peter Marshall, powerful-speaking Scotsman, pastor of the capital's New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, as the new Senate chaplain.

The Democrats' Barkley deplored such "partisan politics." The incumbent, Dr. Frederick Brown Harris, a Methodist, had served the Senate faithfully for four years. He had opened the session with prayers for harmony.

"I've enjoyed his prayers just as much as anybody," Wherry retorted.

Alabama's Lister Hill said indignantly that Harris had been tossed out without notice, a sorry piece of business.

The Republicans wanted Marshall, New Hampshire's Styles Bridges explained, because he represented the church which Abraham Lincoln had attended.

That got Lister Hill's Southern dander up. He shouted at Bridges: "What you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say you are."

Then the Rev. Mr. Marshall was elected chaplain by the Republican majority.