During the years I lived on Capitol Hill in the 1980s, I met a number of native Arkansans who went to the nation's capital to work at a young age and wound up spending most of their careers there. One of them was Marcus Hollabaugh, a proud native of Searcy County who was born at Marshall in 1913, graduated from Arkansas Tech with a degree in history and political science in 1935, and moved to Washington in search of work since there were few jobs in Arkansas during the Great Depression. He became an FBI agent and earned a law degree.
Hollabaugh went on to become the chief of the special litigation section of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice before leaving the government. As an attorney in private practice, he was among the nation's experts on antitrust issues. He called me out of the blue one morning. He had read that the Arkansas Democrat had a new correspondent in town and invited me to lunch at the National Lawyers' Club, which occupied the second and third floors of the 12-story Federal Bar Building on H Street in downtown Washington. Hollabaugh learned that I shared his love of Arkansas history. We would meet one Friday a month for lunch at the National Lawyers' Club until I returned to Arkansas in October 1989. We continued to exchange Christmas cards until he died in 2006 at age 92.
While reading Joe Cole's new book The Piggott Boys, which I detailed in Wednesday's column, I was reminded of Hollabaugh and other Arkansans who became powerful behind-the-scenes operatives in Washington. One of the people Cole profiles is Les Biffle, who was born in October 1889 in Clay County and went on to serve as secretary of the U.S. Senate from 1945-47 and 1949-53.
"Biffle was of German descent," Cole writes. "His family immigrated to the United States and settled in North Carolina. His great-grandfather had fought in the Revolutionary War with the North Carolina militia. His father, Billy Biffle, would later locate in Greenway, where we managed a general store and a stave mill. He was elected as Clay County sheriff in 1888 and moved to Piggott when he was elected circuit clerk in 1892. From these humble beginnings, his son Les would learn the lessons of politics."
Les Biffle moved to Washington in 1909 to serve as secretary for U.S. Rep. Robert Bruce Macon. He worked from 1912-16 in a similar position for U.S. Sen. James Paul Clarke. Biffle worked in France as an auditor for the U.S. Department of War during World War I and then returned to Washington.
In 1925, Sen. Joe T. Robinson of Arkansas helped Biffle earn a job as the assistant secretary for Democratic senators. Biffle became the Senate's majority secretary in 1933. Life magazine reported that Robinson told Biffle: "Keep your eyes and ears open and your damn mouth shut." The Arkansas Gazette reported that Robinson had said: "Keep your mouth shut and your bowels open."
"As the majority secretary or 'pair clerk,' Biffle arranged 'pair votes' between absent Democratic and Republican officials," Aaron Coy Moulton writes for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. "A bill before Congress sometimes lacked the necessary number, or quorum, of officials in attendance to be considered for a vote. As the majority secretary, Biffle would set up a 'pair vote' in which an absent Republican's vote was placed against an absent Democrat's vote. This system ensured that bills received the necessary number of votes. ... With the volume of New Deal proposals, Biffle's time as the majority secretary gave him invaluable experience navigating Washington politics and crafting national legislation."
Biffle became more powerful than many senators. He was a close friend of Sen. Harry S. Truman of Missouri and helped secure Truman's nomination for vice president during the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. After Republicans took control of the Senate following the 1946 election, Biffle served as the executive director of the Democratic Policy Committee.
"It was Les Biffle who mentored the naïve freshman senator from Lamar, Mo., into the politically savvy powerbroker on the Hill," Cole writes. "It was Les Biffle who convinced Harry Truman to become President Franklin Roosevelt's running mate. ... For Biffle, there was great opportunity for his friend Harry Truman. Roosevelt was getting older and was constantly struggling with his health issues. The declining health of the president was kept secret from the public. There were not many secrets that were kept from Les Biffle. He also knew that the appointment would remove Truman from the spotlight that was all too often contentious and combative. The war would be ending soon, and the country would be looking forward to a season of peace."
Truman had only been vice president for a few weeks when Roosevelt died in Warm Springs, Ga., on April 12, 1945.
Here's how the Piggott Banner reported what happened next: "President Truman's first telephone call from the White House was made to one of his best friends. Arriving for his first day of official duties, Truman picked up the phone and put in a call to Leslie Biffle, secretary of the Senate. 'Biff,' said the new president. 'I am making my first phone call from the White House. Can I come up and see you at lunch today?'"
Biffle reportedly replied: "Well, Mr. President, I had a luncheon of my own today with a group of senators. But I'll see if I can squeeze you in."
The most powerful man in the Senate had become even more powerful thanks to a friend in the Oval Office.
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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 09/29/2018