July 28, 1934
THE STATE
Page Nineteen
LEGISLATIVE
PERSONALITIES
JAM E8
8РКВП
MASSBNBURG,
known to University of North
Carolina students n decade and
я
half ago as “Bully” and to the
legislative trade ns “.limmy," is a good
example of the political chameleon one
hears about but seldom sees.
It took Mr. Mn seen burg, the repre¬
sentative from Polk County in the 1933
General Assembly, less than ten years
to change hi* colors after he bade a
fond farewell to his native county of
Franklin and heeded the advice of the
late Horace Greeley about going west.
Mr. Massenburg, now serving here
as general counsel and compensation
director for the State Emergency Re¬
lief Administration, has been hanging
his hat around State legisative halls
for more than
1.'»
years and not yet
does the hair on his head look like an
early snow of winter.
Having been around legislative halls
ns long as he has. his hair should ho
gray even though lie is still short of
forty and not fat, either.
But, speaking seriously, Mr. Mns-
senburg is one of the few men to repre¬
sent an eastern and a western county
in the State House of Representatives.
And Polk, the county he represented
last year, has a habit of sending down
Republican* ever so often to legislate
for them. A Democrat. Mr. Massen-
burg came here in 1933 and made just
about 50 more snoeches than he did
when he was "the Gentleman from
Franklin" in the 1925 House.
Mr. Massenbnrg had hardly rubbed
the shine of a university student off
him before he came here in 1925 to
do some legislating for his home county
of Franklin. Prior thereto, he had
served ns chief page of the 1917 State
Senate and somehow or other got it
into hi* head he wanted to
1н*
a maker
of laws, too.
It is claimed lie wns the first person
connected with the 1917 Senate to stand
up an<l predict that O. Max Gardner,
then lieutenant-governor and presiding
officer of the Senate, would some day
be governor of this commonwealth. It
was the night of the biennial "love-
feast," when legislators tell each other
to forget things which had been said
in the heat of debate and each tries
to outdo the other in public expres¬
sion? of undying love and esteem, that
THE GENTLEMAN FROM POLK
Mr. Mn&BOnburg made hi* fnmous pre¬
diction.
As chief page, it fell to his lot to
make the speech for himself and other
pages in presenting some silver goblet.*
or something to the beaming Lieuten¬
ant-Governor Gardner. Having ex¬
celled in elocution in hi* high school
days young M osseu burg almost tore
loose the button* on his vest as he pre¬
dicted that Mr. Gardner would some
day hang hi* hat in the mansion on
North Blount Street, Raleigh.
Among the prized |K>**e*MOns of Mr.
Massenburg today i? a letter written
by Mr. Gardner in 1917 in which the
latter told how pleased he was with
the oratory of Franklin’* budding
young lawmaker.
Please don’t misunderstand, though,
when I call Mr. Masson burg a polit¬
ical chameleon. True lie changed hi*
colors, but lie did it openly and lie is
not ashamed he did it, either.
He was taught in Franklin to re¬
gard the State’s primary law as some¬
thing that is sacred to the interest of
the people in giving them a chance to
select the officials to administer the
laws of the stata*. The only speech Mr.
Massenbnrg admits making while a
member of the 1925 House was one
in which he attacked the perennial
move of McDowell’s William Weaver
Neal to repeal the state primarv law.
Mr. Neal was defeated then, a* he has
No. 42
Jas. Speed Mnssenburg
By
Wade II. Lucas
been since, in his effort* to repeal the
primary.
Just what Mr. Mnsscnbiirg said nine
year* ago in helping to repel the as¬
sault of .Mr. Neal i* not preserved for
posterity, but I do hear the greybeards
nodded approvingly as they cocked
their listening organs to hear what he
had to say.
Л*
I have said, Mr. Massenbnrg read
apparently the advice that Mr. Gree¬
ley gave and so he betook himself west¬
ward to Hendersonville. There he
quoted from Blaokstone for the natives
of that beautiful summer report cen¬
ter. but he did not tarry there long.
To Tryon, nestling in little Polk
County, scene this summer of alleged
shenanigans in connection with the u*o
of the absentee ballot. Mr. Mn>*. nhurg
went and bung out bis law shingle.
To the 1933 General Assembly lie
came.
When Mr. Neal again lagged the
House to pass his primary repealer.
Mr. Massenbnrg supported him. Ho
said the reason lie did was because the
Republicans participate so much in
Democratic primaries in Western Gum-
linu that no Democrat ever know* just
what has happened to him. If the
East, In* opines, had to contend with
the Republicans like the West does,
the East would kill the primary. Mr.
Mosseiiburg talks like most of the west¬
ern Democrats.
He talked quite a hit in the 1933
House and the more he talked in an
effort to get the membership of the
legislature reapportioned in accord
ance with the census of 1930 the less
results he got. Rcnpportionmcnt
meant the loss to the East of a num¬
ber of House and Senate -eat* and
i lie Easterners just, .-aid in n sense,
"the law lie damned" and went ahead
and defeated all moves to reapportion,
Little did they seem to care if Mr.
Massenbnrg did love the constitution
and wanted its mandate respecting re¬
apportion upheld.
Mr. Massenbnrg lost bis right arm
while bunting when he wo* a boy, but
he is a right smart golf»>r and doc* he
like to beat a couple of Raleigh scribes
at the old Scotch game! If George
McNeill, of Fayetteville, i*
.
. fill
in hii quest for the lieutenant-gover¬
norship in 193C he will have Mr. Ma*-
senburg to thank.