The day was clear, icebox frosty. Outside the Capitol, policemen shivered in their blue greatcoats.Soldiers, padded against the cold, stood with fixed bayonets. Every ten feet along the sidewalks was a policeman. Across Capitol plaza, the soldiers kept watch as the crowds piled up behind the rope barrier.

    Four policemen stood at the Senate entrance to the Capitol. Four stood at the House entrance.Only one ticket was good for both the House and Senate wings - the gold ticket. White-painted wooden barriers wereerected in the Capitol, barring persons from entering forbidden corridors, from approaching forbidden doors. In everydoor along the 756-ft. walk from the House to the Senate floor, a plain-clothesman was posted.

    There were 1,000 policemen, detectives and Secret Service men in the Capitol. They had come with the dawn, inspected every inch of the floor level, tested the elevators, ransacked the Senate Foreign Relations room, the Speaker's office, the House and Senate chambers. In the Senate Sergeant At Arms' office, Wall Doxey grewhoarse saying, "No, no more tickets. No, I just can't help you." In the House Doorkeeper's office a new Doorkeeper,Ralph R. Roberts, hung out the "No Seats" sign the night before.

    Roberts had 673 seats to allot in the House galleries. He had requests for nearly 6,000 seats.Doxey, with some 450 seats available in the galleries, had to turn down hundreds of thrill seekers.

    At 12:15 p.m. promptly, a big black White House sedan rolled up to the Senate entrance and a slight, vigorous woman scampered into the Capitol. Mei-ling Soong Chiang had come to address the U.S. Congress. She had come to deliver two speeches, such speeches as Congressmen, dealing in oratory and immune to their own stock in trade, said they had not heard equaled in 20 years.

    Mme. Chiang was taken to the Senate, where Chairman Tom Connally of Foreign Relations Committeeand Senators Hattie Caraway, Arthur Capper, Alben W. Barkley and Charles L. McNary, the minority leader, welcomed herand ushered her into the chamber. Mrs. Caraway led the procession up to the rostrum where rumple-haired Vice PresidentWallace, all smiles, welcomed Mme. Chiang, introduced her to the Senate.

MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK

One of the world's great personalities

    It was a sight such as Senators will talk about for years. There was something about this small,well-proportioned, birdlike woman that left every Senator and the galleries with an overpowering sense that here they werein the presence of one of the world's great personalities. She had all the art of the greatest of divas, all the simplicityand genuineness of a child. She was straight, almost as slender as a reed in a long, black, trailing, Chinese silkengown that fitted close around her throat. Her hair was jet, parted on the left, combed back and caught in a knot, forminga sort of jet backdrop for her rarely-tinted, clear face.

    She hadn't prepared a speech for the Senate. She had thought she would address a joint sessionof the Congress. There had been many a plan and mix-up. Finally it was decided to keep the crowds as small as possiblefor safety's sake and to hold two separate sessions.

    Mme. Chiang was not disturbed. Introduced by Wallace, she flashed a smile, stood up and deliveredan extemporaneous speech that brought Senators to their feet cheering and handclapping.

    Many undoubtedly thought back to the great oratory of a Bill Borah or the roast-beef pungency ofChurchill. Here was something better.

    Mme. Chiang poured out her words and their fire caught the Senate. Senators, without exception,said they had never heard anything like it. Many said they never expected to hear anything like it again. It wasalmost as though a modern Sappho had charmed them with emerald phrases and her own pearly beauty.

    Going to the House side of the Capitol, Mme. Chiang recognized a man she knew, suddenlystretched out her hand and exclaimed, "Why, Malcolm, how glad I am to see you here." Malcolm Ainsworth is now inmiddle age. He was the son of Bishop Ainsworth, president of Wesleyan College in Georgia when Mei-ling Soong lived inBishop Ainsworth's home. Her face lighted up when she greeted Malcolm Ainsworth.

    "How is your mother?" Mme. Chiang asked anxiously. She smiled when she was told that the womanwho once cared for her, helped her with her lessons and her prayers, was well.

    "Please tell her I shall see her soon," Mei-ling Soong said and passed on.

    She waited in the Speaker's office until the welcoming committee arrived. Then she was walked back to the center entrance of the House chamber, to enter directly opposite the Speaker's rostrum. Ralph Roberts steppedinside the chamber. As Doorkeeper, it was his first introduction to the Congress: "Madame Chiang Kai-shek!"

    The House and galleries stood up and applauded for fully four minutes.

"It's a proud day"

    Again, Mme. Chiang was something more than confidence and a personality as she walked downinto the well of the House. She immediately reached out her hand to bald, smiling Speaker Sam Rayburn, a bachelor.Rayburn had walked to the very edge of the Speaker's rostrum to greet her, led her up on the rostrum and stood withher while she smiled and faced the House.

    Bald and grinning, dressed in faultless blue serge pressed to a knife's edge, the Speakerspoke: "It is a proud day for the United States of America to receive and to do honor to one of the outstandingwomen of all the earth. She is the helpmate and coworker of one of the outstanding figures in all the world. It ismy great pleasure, my high privilege and my distinguished honor to present to you Mme. Chiang Kai-shek."

    Mme. Chiang leaned over and whispered to Rayburn as they stood before the battery of microphones.A half-dozen red-hot, blinding kleiglights poured a white glare down on Rayburn and mme. Chiang from the oppositegalleries where news photographers busted bulbs in frenzied excitement and newsreels ground feverishly.

    "I hope this announcement will not appear harsh," Rayburn said. "Mme. Chiang as said to me it would be difficult and practically impossible for her to read this document with those lights in her eyes."

    There were yells from the House floor, "Lights out! Lights out!" The cameramen were fudging aslong as possible, and not a single bulb flickered out.

    Rayburn, hot and mad, flared: "Once again may I suggest that these lights be turned out. Itis a courtesy Madame requests and the chair expects his orders to be carried out." The lights went out in a hurry.

Captivated Congressmen

    Madame held her script with her left hand, on which she wore a large ring with a blue stone.She read without glasses, without a single bobble or ill-timed pause, in a rich concise voice that clipped off thewords better than most Americans can pronounce them. House members were stunned at her command of English, the lackof any accent, the craftsmanship of her combination of words, her calm assurance and her stage presence. Congressmenwere wholly captivated be her personality, amazed by her presence, dizzied by her oratorical ability. Her one gesture while speaking was to pound daintily with a small right fist clutching a crumpled, silken handkerchief. But thefirst never touched the desk; it was a dainty, precise, eloquent motion.

    She finished. The House stood and cheered and cheered. So did the galleries. Members whistled.Mme. Chiang turned, flashed a brilliant, warm smile at Sam Rayburn, thrust her hand into his, gave a dainty jostle,and left the stand to return to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

    Inside the committee room, the big, green baize-topped committee table, over which the Leagueof Nations was battled to death, was covered with a white tablecloth. A three-foot-long centerpiece of red and whitecarnations, white snapdragon, fern was in the middle of the table. Waiters from the Senate restaurant - eachone questioned and checked by the Secret Service - arranged the silverware, laid out the napkins, poured water and ice.

Dainty as a canary

    Connally took the head of the table, put Mrs. Roosevelt on his right, Mme. Chiang on his left,Sol Bloom at the foot of the table opposite him. Secret Service men stood alert at every door. They were taking no chanceswith the most famous woman in the world.

    The menu: fresh grapefruit cocktail; consomm with noodles; olives, celery and salted nuts; chickena la king on toast with green peas; mixed green salad with cheese; hot rolls and muffins; deep-dish red cherry pie;coffee.

    The luncheon used up most of the food and about 30 minutes of good time. While the Senatorsand Congressmen shoveled theirs up with American gustiness, Madame minced and picked, dainty as a canary.

    After a quick reception for committee members and their wives, Madame had to leave. She had been with Congress for three hours, without even a whistle stop. It was then they discovered that she was also intensely human.She had worn a dainty, silk scarf decorated with small sequins. Her coat had been left on a couch in the committeeoffice. Desperately, she sorted through coats and clothing until she found her headpiece.

    If the Generalissimo could take the Japs as Madame took Congress, the War in the Pacific wouldbe over in the bat of an eyelash. She simply raised Congress above and beyond itself by her grace, her charm, her intelligence.

LIFE'S COVER:  As head of the Army's vast Service of Supply, Lieutenant General Brehon Burke Somervellis faced with the task of providing our soldiers with all of the materials vital to a successful completion of the war. The six "hash marks" on his sleeve represent 36 months of duty overseas.





MME. CHIANG IN THE U.S. CAPITOL

Adapted by Carl W. Weidenburner
from the March 8, 1943 issue ofLIFE.

Portions copyright 1943 Time, Inc.




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