“His ego really was not a factor. He felt that these Senators were very experienced, and committed, and could do the job, and would substantively be responsible.””
Charles Ferris describes the unique leadership qualities of Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield.
RITCHIE: Just to go back to Senator Mansfield for a moment, it took a certain degree of character on his part to give up the spotlight and allow Humphrey to manage the bill. But did he reserve some maneuvering room as Majority Leader by not being the floor manager of the bill? Was there some advantage for him in being one step removed from being the chief spokesman for the bill?
FERRIS: One could say that he was insulating himself and providing at least the perception to both advocates and opponents that the proceedings would not be permitted to bring discredit to the institution of the Senate. I think that Mansfield was able to keep communication with all factions and this was a benefit especially on issues that could emotionally divide the chamber. But I never saw him seek credit for anything that was done. He always attempted to give someone else the credit for anything that was passed. I remember after the bill was passed in ‘64, all the Senators who not only actively managed the bill but many who were just emotionally attached to it, were asked to have their picture taken on the Capitol steps. Mansfield didn’t even want to be part of that. He felt that these were the people who should get the credit for it.
I think he intuitively embraced the old Japanese notion that the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. In the Senate, if you get high visibility the other egos like to consume you and bring you down. By instinct, he didn’t need his ego satisfied by adulation either by his peers or by the general public. It took me years to figure this out, but his relationship with his wife Maureen was based not only on love but absolute respect. He was so devoted to her, and respected her judgment so completely, that the only approbation he sought was hers. If Maureen felt he did the right thing, the world could be against him. Her vote was the only one that counted for him. He was truly unique–and remarkable.
Maureen was very progressive. Maureen was someone who had a Master’s degree in the 1920s. Now there weren’t too many women at the time who were that well educated. After receiving her degrees, she taught and she did social work. She was a person of ideas and thoughts and wasn’t suppressed by the social imperatives of the time that women should stay in their place. Her education alone would make her stand out in Butte, Montana, a frontier mining town. I don’t think there were too many women who had those educational qualifications in urban areas let alone in western mining towns.
Mike Mansfield had an eighth-grade education and was working in the mines when they first met. She obviously saw in him then what we all have come to see in him over the following seventy years, and he saw something in her. Maureen was remarkable in that social status was obviously not important to her. She saw qualities of character that were remarkable qualities, but she recognized them in someone who had no education. She was the one who encouraged him to go first to the School of Mines, for which you didn’t even need a high school education, and then transfer to the University of Montana. He got his GED high school diploma the same day he got his baccalaureate degree from the University of Montana in Missoula. That was all her doing. She even cashed in her insurance policy to make ends meet.
He always said that she was the real politician. She was the one who encouraged him to get into politics, and the first time he lost an election, the next day she was out going around talking to people, planning for the next election. He didn’t have that personality. He had a fantastic memory, though. I think he knew everyone by name in Montana. He was a Jim Farley when it came to name recollection.
The idea that he was able to defer to other Senators and to turn over to Hubert Humphrey, and to Warren Magnuson, John Pastore, and Joe Clark, and give them the visibility on this bill, which was going to be the most significant piece of legislation passed in the twentieth century, was so in character for him. His ego really was not a factor. He felt that these Senators were very experienced, and committed, and could do the job, and would substantively be responsible.
