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Pat Harrison: The New Deal Years
Byron Patton "Pat" Harrison was chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance during the New Deal, and under his tutelage the committee handled many of the major measures of the decade. Harrison brought to his post enormous influence based not only upon congressional longevity dating from his entry into the House of Representatives in 1911 and the Senate in 1919 but also upon a happy combination of personal qualities that made him perhaps the most popular man in the Senate during his time.
Although never the author of any major legislation, Harrison was a master tactician and broker for the ideas of others. Defeated by one vote in 1937 in a contest with Alben W. Barkley for the position of majority leader, the Mississippi senator was named President Pro Tempore in January 1941, six months before his death.
Harrison was an ardent supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt during the first years of the New Deal. By 1935 the senator had become, as Fortune magazine reported, "a New Deal wheelhorse . . . suspicious of his load." One of the major purposes of this study is to explain how Harrison's basic conservatism, subdued by the exigencies of total depression, became manifest during the latter years of the decade.
His reservations, which appeared in the open at the time of the wealth tax of 1935, grew out of his basic belief that revenue bills should be written for revenue only. After he became disenchanted with the later New Deal's emphasis upon deficit spending and social control programs, disillusioned by the treatment accorded him by the President, and convinced that the economic emergency was over, Harrison's attitudinal modifications were obvious. Subsequently his refusal to support the administration, his open leadership of the Finance Committee in diminishing the effect of administrative measures, and his affection for senators cast off by the President all began to indicate that the Mississippian was ready to match his Senate performance with the beliefs that he probably had always held. The Harrison-Roosevelt estrangement did not end until the two agreed upon the need for preparedness in 1940.
This study focuses to a lesser extent upon Pat Harrison's relationships with major New Deal figures. Considerable attention is also devoted to his difficulties with his colleague Theodore G. Bilbo and his easier associations with other Mississippi officials. Finally, this work sheds some light upon the nature of depression and recovery in Mississippi and the political vagaries of the state during this decade. This book is based primarily upon public documents, newspaper accounts, and a number of manuscript collections. Other important sources are private interviews of the author with contemporaries of Harrison and the interviews found in the Columbia Oral History Collection.
Although never the author of any major legislation, Harrison was a master tactician and broker for the ideas of others. Defeated by one vote in 1937 in a contest with Alben W. Barkley for the position of majority leader, the Mississippi senator was named President Pro Tempore in January 1941, six months before his death.
Harrison was an ardent supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt during the first years of the New Deal. By 1935 the senator had become, as Fortune magazine reported, "a New Deal wheelhorse . . . suspicious of his load." One of the major purposes of this study is to explain how Harrison's basic conservatism, subdued by the exigencies of total depression, became manifest during the latter years of the decade.
His reservations, which appeared in the open at the time of the wealth tax of 1935, grew out of his basic belief that revenue bills should be written for revenue only. After he became disenchanted with the later New Deal's emphasis upon deficit spending and social control programs, disillusioned by the treatment accorded him by the President, and convinced that the economic emergency was over, Harrison's attitudinal modifications were obvious. Subsequently his refusal to support the administration, his open leadership of the Finance Committee in diminishing the effect of administrative measures, and his affection for senators cast off by the President all began to indicate that the Mississippian was ready to match his Senate performance with the beliefs that he probably had always held. The Harrison-Roosevelt estrangement did not end until the two agreed upon the need for preparedness in 1940.
This study focuses to a lesser extent upon Pat Harrison's relationships with major New Deal figures. Considerable attention is also devoted to his difficulties with his colleague Theodore G. Bilbo and his easier associations with other Mississippi officials. Finally, this work sheds some light upon the nature of depression and recovery in Mississippi and the political vagaries of the state during this decade. This book is based primarily upon public documents, newspaper accounts, and a number of manuscript collections. Other important sources are private interviews of the author with contemporaries of Harrison and the interviews found in the Columbia Oral History Collection.
344 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1978
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May 16, 2019
The career of Pat Harrison shows what power those southern Democrats in the day wielded in both
houses of Congress. This Senator from Mississippi who was a courtly southern gentleman and master of legislative skill was chair of the Finance Committee during the New Deal years. He also
almost became Senate majority leader.
Byron Patton Harrison was born in Mississippi to a Confederate war veteran in 1881 He had a typical
southern childhood for a middle class white kid even played some semi-pro baseball before becoming
a lawyer and a district attorney. In 1910 he was elected to the House of Representatives and in that
Republican year of 1918 Harrison defeated James K. Vardaman for the US Senate. In that endeavor in
a state where there was no GOP then he was supported by President Woodrow Wilson. Vardaman was
a crude racist demagogue but he opposed entry in World War 1 and Wilson wanted to eliminate him.
No wonder Harrison said Wilson was the greatest president he served under.
For the next 14 years Harrison accumulated the seniority while in the minority so when Franklin
D. Roosevelt won in 1932 and carried in the Democratic Congress, Harrison became chair of the
Finance Committee. From which position he had enormous effect on the initial New Deal measures
which he supported.
Harrison's main support came from the cotton planters who sure took a dim view of measures like
the Wagner Act for organized labor and social security guaranteed to offer workers a measure of
security on their own. Accordingly the reform part of the New Deal he was opposed to. He was a
courtly southern gentleman and like most of that type zealously guarded the south's 'particular
institution' of segregation. These folks always had to worry about those stirring up the poor whites
and making them think that segregation wasn't being guarded closely enough.
Harrison defeated one such in Vardaman and had another to deal with when Theodore G. Bilbo took
Mississippi's other Senate seat in 1934. Harrison regarded Bilbo with loathing like something stuck to his shoe. The competed for patronage favors from the White House with Harrison generally having the upper hand.
In 1937 flush with a landslide victory for his second term FDR put forth his Supreme Court packing
plan which Harrison opposed and went down. But Majority Leader Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas
died during the struggle and the Democrats had to choose a new Majority Leader. The White House
subtly and not so subtly tipped the balance to Harrison's opponent Alben Barkley.
But being the old Wilsonian internationalist he was Harrison backed FDR's policies of aid to the
allies during World War II. He died in 1941 before we were in it ourselves.
Those southern Democrats wielded great power back in the day and this study of Par Harrison is a
textbook example.
houses of Congress. This Senator from Mississippi who was a courtly southern gentleman and master of legislative skill was chair of the Finance Committee during the New Deal years. He also
almost became Senate majority leader.
Byron Patton Harrison was born in Mississippi to a Confederate war veteran in 1881 He had a typical
southern childhood for a middle class white kid even played some semi-pro baseball before becoming
a lawyer and a district attorney. In 1910 he was elected to the House of Representatives and in that
Republican year of 1918 Harrison defeated James K. Vardaman for the US Senate. In that endeavor in
a state where there was no GOP then he was supported by President Woodrow Wilson. Vardaman was
a crude racist demagogue but he opposed entry in World War 1 and Wilson wanted to eliminate him.
No wonder Harrison said Wilson was the greatest president he served under.
For the next 14 years Harrison accumulated the seniority while in the minority so when Franklin
D. Roosevelt won in 1932 and carried in the Democratic Congress, Harrison became chair of the
Finance Committee. From which position he had enormous effect on the initial New Deal measures
which he supported.
Harrison's main support came from the cotton planters who sure took a dim view of measures like
the Wagner Act for organized labor and social security guaranteed to offer workers a measure of
security on their own. Accordingly the reform part of the New Deal he was opposed to. He was a
courtly southern gentleman and like most of that type zealously guarded the south's 'particular
institution' of segregation. These folks always had to worry about those stirring up the poor whites
and making them think that segregation wasn't being guarded closely enough.
Harrison defeated one such in Vardaman and had another to deal with when Theodore G. Bilbo took
Mississippi's other Senate seat in 1934. Harrison regarded Bilbo with loathing like something stuck to his shoe. The competed for patronage favors from the White House with Harrison generally having the upper hand.
In 1937 flush with a landslide victory for his second term FDR put forth his Supreme Court packing
plan which Harrison opposed and went down. But Majority Leader Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas
died during the struggle and the Democrats had to choose a new Majority Leader. The White House
subtly and not so subtly tipped the balance to Harrison's opponent Alben Barkley.
But being the old Wilsonian internationalist he was Harrison backed FDR's policies of aid to the
allies during World War II. He died in 1941 before we were in it ourselves.
Those southern Democrats wielded great power back in the day and this study of Par Harrison is a
textbook example.
Displaying 1 of 1 review