Story-Telling Statesmen from Arkansas - Page 2

Article that reviews Brooks Hays' career in The LinkBrooks Hays, left, views the world as a Christian's workshop and has given his career to the exercise of Christian principles in government. He is shown here with his pastor, The Rev. Clarence W. Cranford, and Angier Biddle Duke, then chief of protocol for U.S. State Department [photograph caption]. "Yes, I can, officer," Hays replied, "but I'd hate to leave the old car behind." Laughter as Hays handles it is a forensic tool, not an end in itself. He uses it to win friends and create an atmosphere wherein issues can be discussed without rancor. "It is important," he says, "that political differences be settled on the basis of reason, not on a basis of political power. We have to build bridges of understanding where men can talk together and work together for their mutual good." Hays's use of the soft sell approach marks him as a phenomenon in twentieth-century American politics. But there is no doubt as to its effectiveness. Even Vice-president Hubert Humphrey, a man seldom lacking in words, holds Hays in awe. When the Democratic National Convention's platform committee was struggling in 1952 for a civil rights plank acceptable to both North and South, Senator Mike Monroney suggested that Humphrey, then senator from Minnesota, and Hays, congressman from Arkansas, sit down together and work out the language for a compromise proposal. Humphrey retorted, "I will not let my persuasive friend from the South-as much as I like him-I will not let Brooks Hays dilute my conviction on civil rights." They did meet together however, and their conference resulted 1