Similarly, in the field of constitutional law and the intricacies of corporation procedure, and claim work, they look up Loring Black, a former Congressman from Brooklyn, who retired from the House in 1934.
One young fellow who can do more for you in Washington with less fanfare doesn’t make it his business. He is Hal Korda, onetime newspaperman, who has many powerful friends on both sides. When the Dems found out he knew Republicans, and vice versa, they began to use him as a channel to square things they didn’t want to talk about directly to each other, and he secured campaign contributions for both.
Many members of Congress lobby, legitimately, for their own communities, or the industries thereof, or for public organizations in which they have a deep interest.
For instance, Joseph Rider Farrington, the delegate from the Territory of Hawaii, who holds a seat in the House but no vote there, has been foremost in the fight to secure statehood for the Islands. Farrington has labored mightily in that cause, and could show the professionals a thing or two. If Hawaii ever achieves statehood, Farrington can take the bow.
Incidental to that great libertarian campaign, Farrington also plugs the produce and products of the Territory and is its chief booster for tourism. His office in the Old House Building resembles a cross between a steamship agency and a Chamber of Commerce.
On the other hand, Henry Latham, one of the three Republicans in the House from the City of New York—if you count Javits a Republican—is a strong and sincere booster for the Navy. Were it not for his “lobbying” in committee, we would have no Marine Corps today.
Latham, a Navy officer in World War II, did not know he had been run for Congress or elected until his ship went into a South Pacific coaling station two months after the 1944 elections. He has been reelected ever since.
He spotted the joker which would have wiped out the Marine Corps in the administration Defense reorganization measure and tied the bill up until the Devil Dogs were assured of being more than a mere “police force.”
Acey Caraway, finance director of the Democratic National Committee and longtime pillar of that body, is opening an office for “consultation” in the LaSalle Building. Acey, often referred to as the “junior Jim Farley,” probably knows more Democratic rank-and-filers than anyone else in the party.
Among the law firms which have had the most success in lucrative immigration matters is the New York one in which Rep. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., is a partner.