New Jobs, Old Faces

Most of the leaders of the new 81st Congress would be familiar. They were men who had grown old in the service of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. After only two years in minority exile, they were back in the seats of power.

Alben Barkley's old job as Senate majority leader would probably fall to Illinois' tall, personable Scott Lucas, Senate whip and Barkley's understudy. Barkley, himself, was expected to step down frequently from the presiding officer's dais to exert his considerable talent for cloakroom leadership. Texas' Tom Connally, 71, who has lost some of his shaggy hair because of shingles, will take back the big job of chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he has labored in comparative obscurity for the last two years under the shadow of Michigan's Arthur Vandenberg.

Ailing & Acidulous. Utah's Elbert D. Thomas, 65, who votes as labor thinks, would replace Ohio's Robert A. Taft as chairman of the Senate Labor & Public Welfare Committee. New York's ailing Robert F. Wagner, 71, has the seniority for the Banking & Currency chairmanship, and hopes to be well enough to take it. If not, the next in line is South Carolina's nails-hard, conservative Burnet Maybank, 49. Tennessee's querulous, old (79) Kenneth McKellar was on deck for the Appropriations Committee, Maryland's acidulous Millard E. Tydings for Armed Services, Georgia's Walter F. George for Finance.

In the House, shrewd and peppery Sam Rayburn, 66, of Texas, will replace Joe Martin as Speaker. New York's durable Sol Bloom, 78, will take over the Foreign Affairs Committee from New Jersey's Charles A. Eaton. New York's tight-fisted John Taber will relinquish the Appropriations Committee purse strings to Missouri's Clarence Cannon, 69, who looks like a professional mourner and is always willing to give a sympathetic ear to an Administration request.

Ranting & Liberal. The powerful Rules Committee, will fall to Illinois' 82-year-old Adolph J. Sabath, the Ways & Means Committee to North Carolina's Robert L. ("Muley") Doughton, who last week celebrated his 85th birthday. In the place of New Jersey's Fred Hartley as chairman of the Labor Committee will be Michigan's liberal John Lesinski. Chairmanship of the Un-American Activities Committee will return to Georgia's John S. Wood, who, following past form, will probably let Mississippi's ranting John Rankin run the show.

If Massachusetts' John W. MacCormack becomes House majority leader, as expected, he will probably abandon his claim on the Committee on Expenditures in Executive Departments. Next in line is Chicago's William L. Dawson, one of two Negroes in Congress (the other: New York's Adam Clayton Powell Jr.). Born in Georgia, Dawson is big, dark-skinned, a lawyer, a powerful speaker. He would be the first Negro to serve as a committee chairman in modern congressional history.