Abstract:
The United States Senate seniority rule, appoints committee chairmen according to length of service and not capability, and some less than qualified senators were appointed chairmen prior to 1975. In 1941, newspapers including: THE RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER, THE CHARLOTTE TIMES, and THE NEW YORK TIMES, spoke out against the potential appointment of NC Sen. Robert Rice Reynolds, next in line to take over the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs. Although Reynolds was a New Dealer, his views on foreign policy earned him the unfair but powerful designation of pro-Nazi, and many North Carolinians wrote letters to Congress urging that Reynolds not be confirmed as chairman.