ENATE JOURNAL

This is a diary of congressional proceedings during 1943-44 when Mr. Drury (Advise and Consent) was a Washington reporter with a sharp pair of eyes and acute ears and a knack for description and characterization. Those were the days of the Soldier Vote Bill, the Manpower Conscription Bill, then D-Day coming up and an election year, with the fourth-term issue being bitterly contended and the terms of the impending peace the object of much heated debate. We are given many insights into the day-by-day workings of this ""bill factory"", the endless committee meetings, the tedious reports, the votes which so often took place in an atmosphere of deadening inertia. We are shown the personalities and intra-House feuds, the dedication wasted, the sturm and drang of politics in use and power wielded. Much may come as revelation, but the book has nothing of the expose about it. These were the days of Barkley, Connelly, and Wheeler; when the Republican-Southern Democrat coalition had its beginnings. In a quite often bitterly ironic way, this is democracy in action. A highly interesting, historically valuable document.