Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson

by Robert A. Caro

  “Yes, he did”: “Georgia Giant,” unedited transcript, Reel 19, pp. 34, 35; Reel 24, pp. 11–12.

  “At another”: NYT, Jan. 13, 1949.

  “Twenty-one met”: NYT, Feb. 15, 1949. Coverage of this Caucus shows the discrepancies between newspapers on the total number of attendees. The New York Herald Tribune put the number of attendees at fifteen, the Washington Post at eighteen. (The Post also said that that number included some “Border State senators” but longtime observers of the Caucus say that only senators from the eleven southern states were invited to the Caucuses.) “The caucus counted”: NYT, WP, Feb. 25, 1949. Rather entries: Johnson’s “Desk Diary” for the appropriate dates, Desk Diary, Box 1, LBJL; Rather interview. “During his first”: “Sense and Sensitivity,” Time, March 17, 1958. “Russell knew little”: McConaughy to Beshoar, June 10, 1953, SP. “At the first”: Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Nov. 24, 1963. “Senator Lyndon”: Stennis to Ina Smith, March 7, 1949, Box 55, LBJA CF.

  “In view”: Russell to Byrd, June 7, 1949. (At the bottom is a note: “This letter sent to attached list of 19 southern senators.” The two senators to whom the letter was not sent were Pepper and Kefauver. Johnson is one of the nineteen.) “Relative to”: Johnson to Russell, June 9, 1949. Both from Dictation, Civil Rights, March-Sept. 1949, RBRL. Vote for Eastland bill: The bill, “District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1949 (S.1527), would have required a referendum of qualified voters on any change in segregation policy in the District of Columbia. (“Entire Senate Voting Record of Senator Lyndon Johnson, by Subject, from January 3, 1949, to October 13, 1962,” Senate Democratic Policy Committee, p. 147.)

  “Stood right with us”: “Georgia Giant,” unedited transcript, Reel 22, p. 3. “Our political”; “In a way”: “Georgia Giant,” unedited transcript, Reel 19, p. 30.

  “Impressed”; “well-organized”: Darden OH.

  “Can-do”: “Georgia Giant,” unedited transcript, Reel 4, p. 2. “Made more”: Meg Greenfield, “The Man Who Leads the Southern Senators,” The Reporter, May 21, 1964.

  9. Thirtieth Place

  “Turkey hash”: Mayer interview. “Makes me feel”: Quoted in W P, Dec. 17, 1950. “By God”: Bartley interview.

  Lady Bird’s life: See the “Lady Bird” chapters in Caro, Path and Means. Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes are from those chapters.

  Glass affair: See “Longlea” chapter in Caro, Path, and, in Means, pp. 25–27, 34, 58–60, 70, 237; Connally, In History’s Shadow, pp. 69–71. “I can write”: Glass to Oltorf, Sept. 16, 1967 (in author’s possession). “Disgusted”; “sexual side”: Young interview.

  “Changed”: Caro, Means, p. 69.

  “Nigger maid”: Caro, Means, p. 70.

  KTBC: See “Buying and Selling” chapter in Caro, Means.

  “Who’s in town”; “Goddammit”: Rather, Jenkins interviews. “Look”: Young interview. “Contempt”: Fisher interview. “Beaten-down”: Lucas interview. “‘Bird!’”: Mahon interview. “The women”: Nellie Connally interview.

  Scenes with Symington: Symington interview. “Heavens, no”: Lady Bird, quoted in Russell, Lady Bird, p. 116.

  “Every inch”: Elizabeth Rowe interview. “Texas friends”: Time, June 22, 1953. Signing at home: Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 405.

  “You may be”: Johnson to Jones, Nov. 22, 1943, Box 21, LBJA SN. “I do assure”: Rowe to Johnson, March 4, 1944, Box 32, LBJA SN. “Here’s hoping”; “I hope”: Jones to Johnson, March 13, 1944, Box 21, LBJA SN; Johnson to Jones, March 17, 1944, Box 21, LBJA SN.

  Doctors advised: Miller, Lyndon, p. 113. Miscarriage: Virginia Wile English OH. “We’re waiting”: Stehling interview. “Never thought”: Russell, Lady Bird, p. 153. And see Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 209–10, 229. “You know”: Gonella interview. “I’ve always wished”: LBJ, quoted in Alsop, “Lyndon Johnson: How Does He Do It?” SEP, Jan. 24, 1959.

  “Daddy was”: W P, July 9, 1989. “I never”: Mayer, quoted in Russell, Lady Bird, p. 155. “A second mother”: Lady Bird, quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 283. “Raised by”: Steinberg, p. 283. “I felt deprived”: Lucy, quoted in Russell, Lady Bird, p. 155. “Why”: Lynda Bird, quoted in Mooney, LBJ, p. 250. “Cut the pattern”: Lady Bird, quoted in Washington Sunday Star, Aug. 15, 1954. “So subservient”: Quoted in Harrington, “A Woman Between Two Worlds,” WP, July 9, 1989. “Just so sad”: Bentsen, quoted in Harrington, “A Woman Between Two Worlds,” WP, July 9, 1989.

  10. Lyndon Johnson and the Liberal

  All dates are 1949 unless otherwise indicated.

  Leland Olds’ life: From interviews with members of his family—his daughter Zara (now Mrs. Wallace Chapin); his son John; his grandson, Brady Chapin; and his daughter-in-law Marianne Egier Olds. With the Oldses’ neighbors on McKinley Street—Philip Davis, Caryl Marsh, Jerome and Natalie Springarn. With members of his staff at the FPC—Reuben Goldberg and Melwood Van Scoyoc. With Alex Radin, general manager of the American Public Power Association. With members of Washington’s liberal community: Alan Barth, Benjamin V. Cohen, Thomas G. Corcoran, John Gunther (then a lobbyist for the ADA), Joseph L. Rauh, James H. Rowe, Jr. With Paul Douglas’ administrative assistant Frank McCulloch. From the oral histories of Rauh and Rowe.

  From Delos W. Lovelace, “What’s News Today,” NY Sun, May 23, 1944; Oliver Pilat, “Head Man in the Nation’s Powerhouse,” NYP, Sept. 23, 1944; Sherrill, Accidental President, pp. 155–66; Douglas, Fullness of Time, pp. 463–65.

  From the transcript of Olds’ own testimony at the hearings on his renomination: “Reappointment of Leland Olds to Federal Power Commission,” Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, United States Senate, Eighty-first Congress, First Session, Sept. 27, 28, 29, and Oct. 3, 1949, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1949 (hereafter identified as Hearings). And from material in the Leland Olds Papers (LOP) at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Boxes 73–161.

  “The central”: “The Enemies of Leland Olds,” New Republic, Oct. 17.

  “Jolly”: Van Scoyoc interview. Olds at work: Goldberg, Van Scoyoc interviews.

  “Liked fun”: Delos W. Lovelace, NY Sun, May 23, 1944. Beloved: Sherrill, p. 156.

  “I learned”: Olds, Hearings, p. 108. “I searched”; “a great deal”; “people really”: Hearings, p. 109. “Were not”: Hearings, p. 115. “That the church”: Douglas R. Chapin, “The Persecution and Assassination of Federal Power Commissioner Leland Olds, as Performed by the Honorable Lyndon B. Johnson Under the Direction of the National Gas and Oil Industries of these United States” (unpublished paper, Jan. 16, 1973, p. 1). “My experience”: Hearings, p. 109.

  Shock: Hearings, p. 116. “Inspiring”: Hearings, p. 114. “Railroad workers”: Hearings, p. 120.

  “Labor angle”; Federated Press: Hearings, pp. 131–32. Baldwin persuaded: Hearings, p. 132.

  “A genuine”; “along socialistic”: Schlesinger, Crisis of the Old Order, pp. 40, 41.

  “Hardships”: Olds, Industrial Solidarity, July 1, 1925, quoted in Hearings, p. 50.

  Saw the power: Olds, The Daily Worker, July 26, 1925, quoted in Hearings, p. 37. Bishop: Olds, Federated Press Labor’s News, July 20, 1929, quoted in Hearings, p. 340. “Give”: The Daily Worker, July 16, 1925, quoted in Hearings, p. 36.

  “Hollow”; “a political”: Federated Press Labor Letter (hereafter abbreviated as FPLL), June 14, 1928, quoted in Hearings, p. 45.

  “The complete”: Olds, The Daily Worker, July 5, 1928, quoted in Hearings, p. 43.

  Transformation had: Olds, FPLL, April 27, July 28, 1927, quoted in Hearings, pp. 61, 65.

  “In my opinion”: “Supplemental Statement of Leland Olds,” Hearings, p. 291. “I rejected”: Olds, Hearings, p. 108. New party: “Statement of Leland Olds—Resumed,” Hearings, p. 136. “Leads the world”: Olds, FPLL, April 27, 1927, quoted in Hearings, p. 344. “The attempt”: Olds, FPLL, Nov. 11, 1925, quoted in Hearings, p. 343. “Theories developed”: Olds, Hearings, p
. 136.

  “Two alternatives”: FPLL, April 6, 1927, quoted in Hearings, p. 40. “Socialistic, if you like”: Franklin D. Roosevelt, quoted in Schlesinger, Crisis of the Old Order, p. 124. “Giant”: FPLL, May 4, 1927, quoted in Hearings, p. 41.

  “Even men”: Oliver Pilat, “Head Man in the Nation’s Powerhouse,” NYP, Sept. 23, 1944.

  At Crerar Library: Oliver Pilat, “Head Man in the Nation’s Powerhouse,” NYP, Sept. 23, 1944; Hearings, p. 140. “Who and what”: Gunther, Inside U.S.A., p. 183. When: Schlesinger, Crisis of the Old Order, p. 120. “All his life”: James M. Kiley, Leland Olds Manual, p. v.

  “I haven’t; Walsh call: Olds to Jerome Walsh, Sept. 16, 1949, Box 74, LOP, FDRL; Oliver Pilat, “Head Man in the Nation’s Powerhouse,” NYP, Sept. 23, 1944. Executive Mansion discussion: Samuel I. Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt, pp. 34–35; Burns, Lion and the Fox, p. 113.

  Camping: Zara Chapin interview.

  Olds at NYS Power Authority: Adolf Berle, Hearings, pp. 18–21; Julius H. Barnes to Ed Johnson, Sept. 26, 1949, in Hearings, p. 336. “Just one day”: Hearings, pp. 148, 9.

  Views changed: Hearings, p. 134; Douglas, Fullness of Time, p. 463; McCulloch, Rauh, Van Scoyoc interviews; NYT, April 12, 1944. “Great reforms”: Hearings, p. 134. “The greatest”: NYT, Aug. 16, 1942. Impassioned attack: NYT, March 2, 1937. Formation of ALP: Burns, Lion and the Fox, pp. 287, 377–78; Schlesinger, Crisis of the Old Order, p. 593. Joined because; “invites all”: NYT, Oct. 4, 1938. He resigned: See Chapter 11.

  Olds at the FPC: C. Herman Pritchett, “Staff Report on the Federal Power Commission,” Committee on Independent Regulatory Commissions, Sept. 1, 1948, pp. II, 5–6; Goldberg, Radin, Van Scoyoc interviews. “In Butte”: Goldberg interview. “Like Einstein”: Kiley, p. 5. The Einstein comparison was made by others, including William C. Wise, then deputy administrator of the Rural Electrification Agency, who said: “There was only one Lee Olds…. Just as there has only been one Albert Einstein in mathematics—only one George Norris in the United States Senate—there has been only one who, having been blessed … with a fertile and imaginative brain, force[d] himself to work as much as fourteen and sixteen hours, six and seven days, week in and week out, in an attempt to bring to fruition … dreams” of low-cost electric energy (Wise, quoted in Kiley, p. iv). “Many of you”: NYT, April 12, 1944.

  Moore quoted: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Interstate Commerce, United States Senate, Seventy-eighth Congress, Second Session, on Leland Olds’ Reappointment as Commissioner to the Federal Power Commission, July 6, 7 and 8, 1944. Washington: Government Printing Office: 1944 (hereafter referred to as 1944 Hearings), pp. 176–77. Without a job: NYHT, June 20, July 9, 1944; NYT, July 9, 1944. “I think”: 1944 Hearings, pp. 166–67. “I do not”: Tunnell, CR, 78/2, pp. 7692, 7693. Not a single: NYT, Sept. 14, 1944; McCulloch interview.

  Brown & Root purchasing: Dugger, The Politician, pp. 282–83; Time Feb. 24, 1947; Newsweek, Nov. 24, 1947; “Natural Gas—Whoosh!” Fortune, Dec. 1949; Time, July 1, 1957. Johnson’s intervention: Clark, Connally, Corcoran, Harold Young interviews. Natural gas and FPC: The New Leader, Oct. 15; NYP, Oct. 30. Phillips: Stokes, WS, June 18, 1955; Joseph P. Harris, “The Senatorial Rejection of Leland Olds: A Case Study,” American Political Science Review, Sept. 1951, p. 680. “Courageously”: Joseph P. Harris, “The Senatorial Rejection of Leland Olds: A Case Study,” APSR, Sept. 1951, p. 679. Truman’s veto: Box 156, LOP, FDRL; Newsweek, April 29, 1950; NYHT, April 16, 1950. A single figure: Among many statements on this point is one by one of the country’s most respected experts in the public utility field, Professor James C. Bonbright of Columbia University, who said in 1949, “In my opinion, millions of people in this country today are presently paying lower utility rates than they would be paying but for the presence of Leland Olds on the Federal Power Commission” (Joseph P. Harris, “The Senatorial Rejection of Leland Olds: A Case Study,” APSR, Sept. 1951, p. 676). “Would establish”: Dugger, p. 351. “Nothing”: Francis to Johnson, June 28, 1949, attached to Francis to Tom Connally, June 28, Box 18, LBJA SN.

  “Olds was”: Oltorf interview. “Transcended”: Connally interview.

  Lyndon knew: The description of Johnson’s strategy and tactics is from interviews with Horace Busby, Ed Clark, John Connally, Walter Jenkins, Mary Rather, and Mary Louise Glass Young, and from Dugger, pp. 351–55, and Sherrill, pp. 155–66.

  Persuaded Ed Johnson: “Clifford—Tel. to LO—Talk W Frank Myers,” undated, Box 73, LOP, FDRL; Dugger, p. 351.

  “He suggested”: Lyle OH, p. 38. “We did an awful lot of research on Olds,” Walter Jenkins recalls (Jenkins OH IX, p. 25). HUAC memorandum: “Information from the files of the Committee on Un-American Activities, United States House of Representatives; date, July 14, 1949; subject, Leland Olds,” quoted in Hearings, pp. 255–56. And Johnson’s staff was also in communication with HUAC: Busby, Young interviews; Young to Johnson, Oct. 10, Box 216, JSP.

  Coordinating research in Austin: Clark, Jenkins, Yarborough interviews. Wirtz description: Caro, Path, pp. 373–76.

  Johnson decided: Lyle OH, Busby interview and OH. Forty thousand shares; “‘Communists!’”: Clark interview. “I don’t care”: Rather to Johnson, Sept. 20, 1949, Box 216, JSP. Wirtz hated: Clark, Hopkins, L. E. Jones, Rather, Harold H. Young interviews. Sent lists: Clark to Johnson, Sept. 8, 1949, Box 216, JSP. Suggestions: Francis to Johnson, Aug. 8, Sept. 16, Box 336, JSP. Culled: Johnson to Francis, Aug. 28; to Nixon, Sept. 24, Box 336, JSP. He also asked HUAC for information on William Berle (Glass to Johnson, Oct. 10, Box 863, JSP).

  “A hero of mine”: Rauh interview.

  They believed: Cohen, Corcoran, McCulloch, Rauh, Rowe interviews. The link: Caro, Path, pp. 450–51, 469, 518–19. Brief disagreement: Olds to Ellis, Feb. 17, 1960, Box 6, WHCF, OF, HSTL. “In fact”: Olds to James Lee, June 15, LOP, FDRL. “What can I do”: William A. Roberts to Olds, June 15, Box 75, LOP, FDRL. The assumption: For example, Cooke to Johnson, June 18, Box 75, LOP, FDRL. Cooke noted that eight of the thirteen members of the Commerce Committee were Democrats, and said, “We who supported you in the past urge you to press for favorable action Olds.”

  “Good deal”: “Kefauver,” “Miscellaneous Notes,” Box 73, LOP, FDRL. “Afraid”: Olds’ note to himself, undated but August from surrounding materials, following a conversation with Clark Clifford, “Miscellaneous Notes: Phone Conversations re Nom.,” Box 73, LOP, FDRL. Believed … Kerr: For example, SLP-D, June 19; NYP, July 1, 13. “Rather agreed”: “Kefauver, 8/18,” “Miscellaneous Notes,” Box 73, LOP, FDRL. “Serious danger”: Stokes, WS, Aug. 25.

  “Open hostility”: Olds to Fred Freestone, Sept. 16, Box 74; Olds’ “Desk Diary,” Sept. 22, Box 73, LOP, FDRL. Five members: WS, Aug. 25. Now seven: Ed Johnson to Lyndon Johnson, Aug. 24, in Hearings, p. 1. “Unalterably”; “unsatisfactory”: Olds, “Clifford—Tel to LO,” undated, Box 73, LOP, FDRL. And McGrath’s report to Clifford, who relayed the report to Olds, shows how totally Olds’ fate was linked to his abandoning his attempts to make natural gas companies adhere to the law. After talking to Clifford, Olds made the following note to himself: “Reed—will not be opposed if before my nomination amendments to natural gas act are passed.” Johnson’s reason for increase: The New Leader, Oct. 15; Busby interview. Truman had: MW to Clifford, Aug. 8, Box 12, Papers of Clark Clifford, HSTL.

  “Stacked”: “Clifford—Tel to LO,” undated, Box 73, LOP, FDRL. “I am”: Olds to Berle, Sept. 15, 1949, Box 74, LOP, FDRL. “Seldom”: Childs, NYP, July 1, 1949. “We thought”: McCulloch interview. Olds had no idea: MuCulloch, Rauh, Van Scoyoc interviews.

  11. The Hearing

  All dates are 1949 unless otherwise indicated.

  Room 312: That room has been renumbered, and is now Room 318 in the Senate’s Russell Building.

  Olds didn’t know: Busby, Rauh, Van Scoyoc interviews. Lyle’s testimony: “Reappointment of Leland Olds to Federal Power Commission,” Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee
on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, United States Senate, Eighty-first Congress, First Session, Sept. 27, 28, 29, and Oct. 3, 1949, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1949 (hereafter identified as Hearings), pp. 28–101.

  Tobey sympathetic: Othman, El Paso Herald Post, Sept. 28. Had given proxy: Tobey to Johnson, Sept. 29, Box 216, JSP. “A man has”: Tobey, Hearings, p. 30. “The Congressman”: Lyndon Johnson, Hearings, p. 31.

  “Without objection”: Lyndon Johnson, Hearings, p. 44. “Shocked”: McFarland, Hearings, p. 101. Tobey left: That evening, he took back the proxy he had given Lyndon Johnson and gave it to Ed Johnson instead, writing Lyndon, “I will explain more fully when we meet again” (Tobey to Johnson, Sept. 29, Box 216, JSP).

  “Mr. Olds”: Lyndon Johnson, Hearings, p. 106. “Rejected”: Olds, Hearings, p. 108. Never … for Daily Worker: Hearings, pp. 132–33. “An open book”: Hearings, p. 154.