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."