Pat Harrison

Byron Patton Harrison ( born August 29, 1881 in Crystal Springs, Copiah County, Mississippi; † 22 June 1941 in Washington DC), often just called Pat Harrison, an American politician (Democratic Party), which in the state of Mississippi was both chambers of Congress represented.

Life

After the public school visit Harrison studied at the University of Mississippi, later at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Upon successful completion, he was admitted to the bar in 1902 and worked as a lawyer in Leakesville. As a result, he spent four years as district attorney on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, before he in 1911 won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Policy

He was re-elected three times, and was in Congress to the supporters of Mexico and Germany 's policy of President Woodrow Wilson. In 1918 he succeeded election to the U.S. Senate, where he prevailed against incumbent James K. Vardaman, an avowed enemy of Wilson.

In the following 22 years, where he belonged to the Senate, Harrison made ​​a name for itself as a very effective politician and outstanding speaker, who always had an ear for the interests of his constituency; his knowledge and support were often asked. So he ran in 1928 election campaign in the southern states for a native of New York Democratic candidate Al Smith in the run-up to the presidential election. Four years later he made at the Democratic National Convention that is Mississippi's delegation suggested in the decisive third ballot on the side of Franklin D. Roosevelt; after his election as President Pat Harrison was a welcome guest at the White House. As chairman of the influential Finance Committee, he was one of a small number of key people in the creation of the U.S. pension system, which became known as Social Security.

As in 1937, the post of Senate Majority Leader was to be filled to Pat Harrison applied for it and competed there at eye level with the later U.S. vice president albums W. Barkley. Given the expected tight decision was Harrison's campaign manager on the second Mississippi Senator Theodore Gilmore Bilbo, and asked this to his voice. Bilbo, a racist demagogue who had his voters tribe among the farmers of Mississippi, despised Harrison, who represented primarily the wealthy plantation owners and merchants. Nevertheless, he said to his voice, if Harrison personally asked him why. This then declared: ". Tell the son of a bitch I would not speak to him even if it Meant the presidency of the United States " (Tell that son of a bitch that I would not even talk to him when it comes to the presidency would. ) Harrison lost the election by one vote difference, but kept himself so that his reputation as the senator who does not want to talk with his colleague from the same State.

Pat Harrison stood before the Senate Finance Committee from 1933 to 1941. On January 6, 1941, he was president pro tempore of the Senate, but only five months later he died in office. He was considered a supporter of the Conservative Coalition, the unofficial cooperation between the conservative wings of the Republicans and the Democrats, who determined the Senate policy until the 1960s into it.