The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-09-20
SIDELlGHTS ON SPEAKER
 HENDERSONSPERSONALITY

From Papers at the Time of Speaker
 Hendersons Election
 ~ NE of General Henderson's chief
 fads in congress has been gener-
 H ous appropriations for pensions. From the very first moment when a pen- sion appropriation bill was considered in a congress of which he was a member until the present day, he has lost no op- portunity of eulogizing the veterans of the Civil war and urging that the gov ernment treat them with the utmost gen. erosity
 The speech which he delivered on March ', 1894 is fair sample of all his utteranees. The democrats had attack ed the pension roll as a roll of fraud. General Henderson claimed that not a scintilla of evidence had been produced to prove this charge He denounced Gen eral Black for having attempted Ito strike a dagger into the souls of the ex-Union soldiers. For one" he ex- claimed. "this debate shall not close without my crying shame upon the sol- dier who stands here leading a column to discredit the pensions of this repub- lie. My Godr he continued. have we not Union, and are we not all in it now7 If so, let us try and pull together and be just"
 When the resolution for investigating the alleged fraudlent armor plates was before the house in the summer of 1894, Mr. Henderson said:
 If this company had 10000 Carnegies in 1t, for one I should insist upon the investigation. (Applause) Let us put the knife of honest investigation into the question and ascertain. as we ought to ascertain. what are the facts in connec- tion with itT (Applause.)
 With reference to currency legislation, General Henderson's record Is quite volu- minous. but consistent. He has always been against the free coinage of silver, but In 1893 he declared that the panic of that year was due more to the fear of low tariff than to the purchase of silver under the Sherman law He voted for the repeal of the purchasing clause, after making speech in which he said that free coinage would send this country to silver basis. He regarded the repeal bill as merely an opiate, temporarily reliev- ing pain.
 My conviction is," he said, that the time is near at hand when there must be a radical revision of our whole financial system.''
 When currency legislation came to the front again in 1895 General Henderson re- iterated what he had said in the tariff debate of 1884, that he was against the is- suing of gold bonds. ''Nor am willing" he added, 'to adopt legislation that pro- vides for the retirement and cancellation of the greenback. The time may come when shall change my mind. but do ripe for such retirement"
 General Henderson, as chairman of the judiciary committee, was quite active in securing the passage of the bill to pre- vent prize-fghting in the territories and the District of Columbia He defended the severity of the punishment proposed in the law-imprisonment from one to five years-by saying that 1t was "the Judgment of the best people in America that severe penalties should be enforced to break up this practice"
 The bill to reduce the cases in which the death penalty can be inflicted also re- ceived General Henderson's support and vote.
 It Is worth while knowing that General Henderson, who was one of Reeds com mittee on rules. always insisted that the system was not autocratic. We of the committee or rules are rot here as dic- tators," he said one day. in steering a special order through the house. He es- pecially resented Representative Walk CTS insinuation that "the leaders" were trying to rule the house.
 "Oh, don't plead the baby act" said General Henderson. q do not know what the gentleman means by leaders, Then he pointed out that. although one mem- Der could make motion, it took ma- jority of all tho members of the house to carry the motion into effect.
 A marked if fitful change in General Hendersons demeanor first become mo- ticeable the day he was first sworn in as speaker of the house of representatives of the forty-sixth conregss. As he walked firmly down the center aisle of the cham Der, a cane assisting the artificial leg that had taken the place of the one left upon the battlefield, his form erect, his 1 ircn-gray hair tossed back from his high | forehead and fis blue eye fearlessly gag | ing at the flag above the speakers ros- | trum, those who watched him closely de- tected sn assumption of dignity which became more apparent as the new speak CT delivered his brief inaugural. His voice was trifie husky and his expression was serious. Not smile crossed his features and not the semblance of humor crept into his remarks. Evidently he was in a solemn mood, and as an old friend who watched him closely said. Tt was prob ably for the first time in his life."
 Speaker Henderson has not. however, | been dignifed and solemn at. all times since that day. With a proper apprecia- | tion of the obligations of his office, he yet becomes his old self occasionally. as was shown few weeks ago in the party 1 caucus called to secure harmony among the fiercely-contenoing factions on the Porto Rican question. There seemed to be little or no hope of harmonizing the | factions in the house.
 l The change of front on the question of free trade for the island had caused | much Ill feeling, and 1t looked at one | time very much as If the bill brought into the house by the republicans through | ~4. 1o. n Do r,A