National Affairs: New Leaders

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Senator Joseph Robinson, Arkansas, will lead the Democrats on the floor of the Senate in the new Congress.

The more noted Senator Oscar Underwood, Alabama, resigned the leadership on account of ill-health. (Prophets say that he may be Presidential nominee in 1924.)

Senator Robinson is a fighting Southerner who talks with his fists. Born with a red-headed temper, he soon acquired freckles. But years of law and politics have induced a certain amiability, so that he now enjoys fishing.

He was permanent chairman of the San Francisco convention which nominated Cox.

Most famous of all his speeches was that against La Follette immediately before America entered the war. The most famous fortnight of his career was in 1912, when he went from Representative to Governor to Senator-elect within 14 days.

He managed a Child Labor bill which the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional, and the daylight-saving law of war-times.

The immediate destinies of the Democratic party are largely within Senator Robinson's control.