The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-11-29
CANNON Is DEMOCRATIC
NOT IN A PARTY SENSE, But IN MAN.
NER AND CHARACTERISTICS.
"Uncle Joe" Likely to BE a Popular
Speaker, Though Conservative and
Opposed to Extravaganza.

of the House of Representatives for the
Fifty eighth Congress as a certainty. The
anxious ones, who want to be chairmen OF
committees or clerks or doorkeepers or mes
sengers other cogs in the great popular
wheel of the governments law-making ma
chinery, are awaiting his arrival at Wash
ington They have pressing business with
"OOm joe"
Cannon" said the late Amos Cummings
once on the closing day of Congress, when
| Uncle joe had calmly agreed to some
| Senate amendments on a pending naval
| bill, thereby bertaying the House, to Cum
mins's mind, Cannon, Huh. you're no
| cannon: you're a toy musket." Whereupon
! Uncle Joe" unbuttoned another button on
| his waistcoat and took a fresh chew of to-
bacco. Such airy persifage as that makes
| no impression on Uncle joe" All the sar-
casm, wit and abuse the Democrats have
| flung at him in the last twenty years hasn't
made dent.
| The leading characteristics of Cannon's
speakership will be its chilled steel Repub
| licanism. He is a partisan If Democrat
has ever been inspired with worthy mo-
tive has ever done a patriotic act, or has
any claim on the patronage perquisites or
pap. when the Republicans are in power,
| Uncle joe hasn't heard of the case. To
be sure, Uncle Joe" isn't averse to using
| Democrats for voting purposes when he
has need of them, but he regards them sim
ply as a means to end. Perish the
thought that a Democrat, politically, is
anything but villain and a traitor to the
State is the Cannon creed.
Ever since Cannon has been at the head
of the committee appropriations he has
refused pet appropriations and stepped on
toes generally, but when the time comes
the Republicans will step up and vote for
him, because they all like him and because
| they all know he is honest. He has had
| the appropriation of billions of dollars.
| Naturally he has caused resentments but
| he has been serenely Indifferent to them.
| When the time came to claim the biggest
plum within the gift of the House he
claimed 1t. Beyond a few scattering pro-
tests, ii seems that his claims will be ac-
knowledged. Cannon is likely to be the
most popular and democratic speaker the
House has had for years
NOT LIKELY TO INITIATE.
Before Speaker Henderson went into the
chair he was hail-fellow-well-met with
everybody in the House. AS soon as he
was elected he took on enough dignity to
frost a cotton crop. If Cannon initiates
he will surprise all his friends and dsap-
point the readers of character. who -four
ish so abundantly in this city, where there
is so much character to read, with SO few
of the readings fit for print
| The Democrat who tries to tangle Cannon
on point of parliamentary law or proceed
ure will have sorry job. Cannon has been
tangling other persons so long that he
knows the entire system. He play ii
with his eyes shut. He has methods of his
| own, too.
Once last winter Speaker Henderson
called Cannon to the chair. There came a
vote. Nine or ten ayes" stood up Can
non counted eI them slowly and deliberately
LOO of them. Cannon began to count
The usual method by which an expert
enced speaker counts votes is to separate
them into groups of ten. Reed and Hen
derson were marvelously expert at it.
They could tell how many men were
standing on the floor in twinking. Can
non sawed the voters off one by one with
an up-and-down movement of his bony
right arm: When he had laboriously
reached fifteen he leaned over to the clerk
ana SAID: ''Oh, -, make 1T a hundred"
Cannon is sixty-six years old. He is
lean and angular and knotted and gnarled.
He goes with shaver upper lip and wears
rope or silvered sandy Whiskers on his
chin. He waves his arms about like fails
when he is making speech and he spea KS
the vernacular when he wants to make
point. spade is a spade with Cannon.
In former days he was careless in his
dress Now he is semi-natty. OF late he
has been effulgent in full dress in theater
parties and at dinners.
He has an affection for striped shirts.
he usually buttons only the three bottom
buttons of his waistcoat. When he thinks
: particularly we'll of his shirt he buttons
only the last button and allows the shirt
to puff out with reckless abandon.
He has nasal twang that penetrates tc
all parts of the House, and when he gets III
and begins to elucidate an idea he sticks
to his task regardless of what others ma,
s sye or td do his mind works rapidly Some
, Uncle joe hits all such on the head. He
, has no time to make phrases or use the
! napier of sarcasm. His weapon is the ak
: He is good company He can tell those sim
, pie Western tales that delight the cloal
, rooms better than any Of his colleagues
he enjoys a dinner drinks sparingly ant
some cigars during the day and chews man,
more. He likes to play poker for small
nobody in the capital who has an acute
knowledge of the value of four hearts ant
a spade than he
A CONSUMMATE POLITICIAN.
He is a consummate politician. The fol
of the Wisconsin delegation from Babcocl
to himself shows that Cannon has been {
candidate for speaker for some time.
Even If Henderson had not declined a re
L nomination, it is likely that Cannon woul,
have made the race against him. He woul,
have had good chance of winning Hi
!, deal with Representative Hopkins whereof,
!, Hopkins was given the United States sen
: atorship in place of Mason contemplate,
= Cannons race for the speakership. He see
n a long way ahead with a political vision
sharpened by forty years rough-and-tum
BILE fighting in the strenuous lists of Hi
nois
Cannon will be a conservative speaker
especially where the appropriation o
money not needed for the ultimate good o
[ the country and the incidental ncremen
: of the Republican party is concerned III
is the watch dog of the treasury" bu
e sometimes he growls instead of banks.
g Mr.. Cannon has been elected to Congress
i. fifteen times. He was defeated once II
= 1880, when Mckinley and host of othe
e passage of the Mckinley bill. When thei
= defeat became known Major Mckinley an
e Mr.. Cannon were at the congressional
# Democratic landslide brought many O
e with many words of sympathy and condo
Il lence. Each of these men presented a smil
y ing face, and both made little of their re
jest and humorous retort Major Pearct
now dead. who represented one of the s.
Louis districts in the Congress, told tn
story.
q After all had withdrawn but Pearce. Can
non and Mckinley, Uncle joe turned
/ Mckinley, who was sitting beside him
II with the remark:
e "Bill. there is nc use of us lying to eac
other, is there?'
:. mo, joe" answered Mckinley.
III | sfWall. IFS afn'f