How to Make Friends and Influence People

WHATEVER its contemporary interpretations, democratic liberalism in Cambridge has seldom been a passing phenomenon. With the presence of Harvard, Radcliffe, MIT and 22 other colleges and universities, any historical account of liberal leaders educated in the Cambridge area no doubt would uncover countless luminaries.

One such 20th century liberal, Thomas Phillip (Tip) O'Neill, Cambridge's U.S. Representative, recently has emerged as a nationally prominent figure. While evading the nimbus of most national politicians, last month O'Neill captured the post of House majority leader without making any enemies along the way. His success is no mystery.

At the forefront of liberal movements for 37 years, Tip O'Neill is noted, in the words of one Congressman, as "a compassionately human politician who knows the art of effectively communicating with men who are supposed to be, but seldom become, his adversaries."

If asked, most Harvard students probably could not identify 60-year-old Tip O'Neill, but they soon will become aware of his singular personality. Moving into the office of former Majority Leader Hale Boggs, (D-La.), whose plane vanished over Alaska last October, O'Neill is suddenly being thrown into the media spotlight.

It is an unfamiliar position for this affable and modest Cambridge man; he has traditionally been receptive to the press but seldom has he outwardly sought its publicity. Now in a position of high leadership, O'Neill's unpretentious attitude toward Washington's power and social structure has already pumped fresh air into the capital's current "power of the purse" controversy.

Conditioned by 37 years of legislative experience, O'Neill is beginning to provide, along with Speaker Carl Albert, the dynamic and effective leadership House Democrats have lacked in recent years. The Nixon Administration, previously unworried by House rhetoric, faces a 6 ft., 2 in. Irishman who unhesitatingly warns his collegues: "I believe that Congress has its own mandate from those people most affected by the President's budget. We will not allow President Nixon to eliminate these essential programs in the areas of adequate housing for middle America, the education of our youth, the health care of our elderly, and the general welfare of our Nation."

Not a single vote was cast against O'Neill in January when he was chosen as House majority leader--he received unanimous acclaim by House members for his "absolute fairness" and approachability. Many have identified him as the best-liked man in the House." An expert in parliamentary procedures, O'Neill has earned the respect of Democrats and Republicans alike. As Rep. Thomas Rees (D-Calif.) claimed, he is "a damn bright, shrewd, very kind man; an excellent politician with a lot of guts, a lot more open to innovation and reform than other leaders." O'Neill, in part, wins such accolades by establishing close working relationships with vast numbers of representatives and making it a point to know their first names.

RATHER than seeking publicity, O'Neill circulates behind the scenes, building upon an unquestioned record of credibility. On the House floor, he towers over his collegues, regularly providing counsel. A close working relationship has been established between Speaker Carl Albert and O'Neill: The two constantly consult on the floor and off. O'Neill is so competent in dealing with all congressmen, in fact, that he has gained a non-regional reputation. As one South Carolinan representative noted in seconding O'Neill's nomination last month: "He'll be a great leader; he knows every one of the members and has no prejudices. He knows no South, no East, no West, no North--he's All-American."

The story behind this "All-American" is deceptively simple, much like his style. The son of an Irish bricklayer, O'Neill entered politics at age 16 campaigning for Al Smith's presidential drive. At 21 he lost the race for Cambridge City Council by 150 votes. The year he graduated from Boston College, 1936, he was elected to the Massachusetts legislature where, in 1947, he became Democratic minority leader. During those years, O'Neill cultivated his talent for leadership. Once independent Democrats gravitated toward him. He was fiercely partisan and, in 1948, led his fellow Democrats to their first majority (by three votes) in Massachusetts history. O'Neill ascended to the speakership where, as Eddie Bellis, his former page, remarked, "he stood on top of the mountain as the first Democratic speaker."

From 1948-1952, O'Neill wielded a heavy gavel, physically and spiritually. "Tip probably broke more gavels than any speaker in the past 25 years," recalled State Rep. Jim Cravin. "Contrary to some speakers, Tip never let the House get out of control. He believed in the system: everyone follows the rules. He wanted good attendance records from all members." He even locked the doors during important roll calls to, as O'Neill put it, "keep a, fella from taking a walk." "As strict as he was, he displayed a good sense of humor from the chair but never went out of his way to tell jokes," Cravin said.

Harrison Chadwick, also a State Representative during O'Neill's Beacon Hill days, remembers his collegue as "an intensely partisan but friendly leader who could be at ease with any sort of group.

"Tip was quite self-sufficient when it came to making important decisions," Chadwick said. "Not that he didn't consult other members--he did. But he wasn't as dependent upon others' input as many before and after him had been. He was very proud to be the first Democratic speaker in Massachusetts. We knew that if Tip wanted to move forward in politics, he had the capability to do so.

"Perhaps most impressive is the fact that, through all his years in Washington, he has not deviated from his basic philosophical leanings. He is still an outstanding liberal who supports pro-labor and human welfare legislation. But he never latched onto one speciality as so many Congressmen do."

O'Neill's apparent lack of specialization is compensated for by his clubbiness with legislators. He has the ability to unite diverse groups of politicians into a solid mass of voting power. "And that," one Congressman stated, "is what O'Neill's politics is all about."

The Irishman's strongest trait, cultivated in the Massachusetts legislature, is the tricky ability to consistently communicate with all members of the House. Thomas O'Neill III, a freshman representative on Beacon Hill, explained his father's lasting techniques: "Dad can't stand being disliked. He's so friendly that animosity is a foreign word to him. If there's a problem between another member and him, Dad simply calls him or her up and clears up the difficulty--no hard feelings remain. He talks friend-to-friend and communicates best with members in the committee room."

O'Neill effectively used the caucus and committee meetings to push through Democratic legislation and to solidify the strongly independent Democratics in the State Legislature. "Democrats were vigorously independent in those days," recalls State Rep. Michael Feeney. "Tip brought them together and held intact a small House majority. To put it mildly, he encouraged Democrats to get involved in committee work. He strongly believed in frequently holding caucuses where Democrats would debate their positions, rather than on the floor of the House.

"To my recollection, Feeney continued, Tip held a majority on all major questions during his speakership. He didn't lose a single vote.

For the last 20 years, O'Neill has used similar tactics Capitol Hill, although he has yet to reach the success realized during his final years in the Massachusetts legislature. He firmly believes in allowing House members to air their differences behind caucus doors, to reach a compromise, and to go to the floor with a solid block of Democratic votes.

When John F. Kennedy '40 moved to the Senate in 1952, O'Neill ran for Kennedy's House seat (today Massachusetts's 8th District), won it, and retains it to this day. He quickly became a member of the elite "board of education"--then an informal club of the House's most powerful leaders, including Speaker Sam Rayburn and John McCormick. He slowly began to learn the ins and outs of House leadership. Two years ago, Carl Albert picked him as majority whip, a position he held until his recent election to the post of majority leader.

O'Neill's career on Capitol Hill has been faithful to those "people-oriented" ideals he grew up with in Cambridge. A strong labor man, he consistently supports workmen's compensation, medicare, health centers, and civil rights. He is a major force behind House reform of the seniority system, especially in committees where he so effectively operates.

An example of this occured on January 23, when, for the first time in memory, every House committee chairman was subjected to a secret yes-or-no vote. Though all of the chairmen retained their posts, they were encouraged to become more responsive to party positions through the knowledge that they must submit to a party vote periodically and could be deposed. Tip O'Neill sponsored the secret vote rule, realizing that many members would not want to stand up and be publicly counted against the powerful chairmen.

O'Neill also is encouraging the assignment of freshman Democrats to major committees. In a recent interview with the Associated Press, he explained his reasons: "There are plenty of spots to go around for everybody. In years gone by, power has been concentrated in the hands of a few. Senior members who had been around for years would be chairmen of a committee and two or three subcommittees and then be on another committee of importance and also on special committees and things of that nature."

Recently, his efforts have been directed toward President Nixon's budget proposals. An advocate of decreased defense spending, O'Neill charged last month: "While funding for national defense continues to increase, the President proposed to eliminate all the community development programs which have given new hopes for decent living conditions to low and middle-income families. The President's budget provides no new funding for model cities, neighborhood facilities, open space land, water and sewer facilities...What kind of spending priority is this?"

In 1967, O'Neill was the first House Democratic leader to break with President Johnson and oppose the Vietnam War. It was his most excruciating decision. Even though the academics in Cambridge favored such a break, O'Neill's strength has always come from the workingmen, who in 1967 were still hawkish. His son, Thomas, reflects that "Dad had to sell the non-academics on his switch. He really saw himself as educating them to the realities of the war. He seriously doubted whether he would be re-elected."

THE war issue brought into focus O'Neill's unique situation in representing both an academic and non-academic community. He confronts it, as he explains, by working "hard at representing the people of my district, no matter who they are. If a college needs help, I do what I can. If a person needs help, I help him or her. There is no problem if you look at the job in terms of people needing help."

Cambridge's academic constituents have unfailingly supported O'Neill over the years. He has been at the head of countless liberal movements which attract large numbers of collegians. "Throughout my life," he said, "I have been a liberal. Many times I have taken liberal stands long before they came into prominence."

O'Neill's association with higher education exhibits a clearly positive voting record. Although the proposed Nixon budget allows for substantially fewer funds to higher education, O'Neill states: "We passed a comprehensive higher education bill last year and will need to appropriate more funds this year. I will work to make sure our colleges get their funds. In my career our colleges have averaged millions in federal funds and I have always had a staff member who specialized in servicing the colleges."

In addition, he often communicates with various faculty members and administrators at Harvard. As one staff member put it, "We occasionally, but in good faith, receive gobs of unsolicited advice from Cambridge's academics." In return, whenever O'Neill is challenged by a liberal scholar for his seat, he simply has John K. Galbraith or George Wald write a letter of recommendation which is then good-naturedly sent throughout the district.

Assuming his new responsibilities with an unshakeable vigor, Tip O'Neill has eloquently led House Democrats in barrage after barrage on President Nixon's Economic Report and impoundment of funds: "I find the President's Economic Report deficient on both humanitarian and economic grounds. It is obviously a blueprint for repetition of the economic witches' brew which featured the first two years of the Nixon Administration. That unhappy era was characterized by what economists had previously felt was unattainable: soaring prices and escalating unemployment at the same time."

A strong labor man, O'Neill vehemently opposes high unemployment rates. "Unemployment is a cancer, a cancer of the human spirit," he says. "The father who can't find a job to support his family, or may be even forced to leave them so they can qualify for welfare, is not a statistic. He is a fellow human being. Prolonged unemployment will inevitably destroy that human being in every meaningful sense."

Congress's fiscal responsiblity is well accounted for by O'Neill. He takes "issue with the President's priority of spending in fiscal year 1974. Congress fully recognizes its obligations for fiscal responsiblity," he says, "but it will not permit the President to tear down the humanitarian and necessary social programs that Presidents Kennedy and Johnson helped to build... [The President] has dismantled and destroyed the great social programs advanced by every Democratic President since Roosevelt."

Chances are that Tip O'Neill will be successful in upholding "the humanitarian and necessary social programs" he has fought so hard for during his political career. He is too likeable to openly oppose, too sincere to question, and too determined to stop. When Tom O'Neill was asked why his father had so few enemies, the answer simply was, "He's just too affable." His unbeatable brand of politics, combining such apolitical virtues as honesty and fairness with sidewalk politicking, already is leaving its mark on the House chamber. Politicians try to find ways to dislike him, but they rarely succeed. He is simple enough to understand and powerful enough to respect. As he stated recently, "Massachusetts has produced many great leaders for this nation but I expect to be judged on my own record and on how well I can get this job done."

Granted, Tip O'Neill's style is not very glamorous. Yet he could scarcely choose any other way of operating on Capitol Hill. If Speaker Carl Albert doesn't beat him to it, O'Neill may emerge in the coming years as the House's most influential leader.

"While evading the nimbus of most national politicians, last month Tip O'Neill captured the post of House majority leader without making any enemies along the way. His success is no mystery."