Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1903-11-19
LONELY DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS
MAN FROM IOWA AND HIS
CAREER.
REQUIRES MUCH SPACE
He Wrote Sketch of His Political Life
For Congressional Directory-Seems
to Have Dates Mixed-The Lands
Brothers of Indiana.
lRY II. ], MAHIN.l-

tBY II. ]. MAHIN.l
Washington, Nov. is. lit takes |
a half page in the congressional di-
rectory Tor Judge Wade of the second
district the only democrat in congress
from Iowa in the house to tell about
himself. The congressional directory
is volume Of information about the
house, the senate and the different de-
Dartments OF the government. Among
other things it contains brief blograPh-
les of each rsember of congress. These
little sketches are prepared by the
members themselves on request.Judge
Wade uses more space than both Sen
ators Allison and Dolliver and more
than Congressman Lacey, Hepburn
and Hull combined. In fact there are
only few members OF the house and
senate who consider themselves en-
titled to as much space as does Judge
Wade Among them notably is
Senator Chauncey Depew Mr.. Depew
uses about half again as much as
does Mr.. Wade. MIR. Wade in all uses
thirty-five lines; Mr.. Birdsall of Du-
buque. the other new member from
iowa uses eight lines.
The congressional directory is very
interesting 1t is almost a story book
in its way and when one remembers
that each and every biography is pre-
nared by the man it describes,
he is likely to be led into the charac-
teristics and then he finds that person.
al vanity is as prevalent among con-
gressmen as other people. But modesty
is also evident The longest sketch
in the directory is that of Senator De-
pew, occupying 81 lines, the shortest
that of Representative Byrd of Phila-
delplia. The latter takes two lines
= simply to say that he is "A democrat
of Philadelphia ELECTED to the Fifty
eighth congress receiving 3,0a1 votes"
But Judge Wade thinks readers of
the directory want to know more
about him and there is probably no
reason to think that he is wrong in
this assumption.
OF course Mr.. Wade tells about the
hardships of his early life as boy on
the farm and then gets up to the time
when he accepted a lectureship in the
state university. 1t seems that Mr..
Wade has usually accepted" things,
often after considerable importuning.
But the judge certainly has had a sue
cessful career On farther in the
story Mr.. Wade writes about himself
as follows:
'In December 1898 upon the resign
alton Of Judge Fairall he was appoint
ed by Gov. Boies to fill the vacancy;
the following fall he was elected for
long and short terms, and was again
elected in 1898; he announced that he
would not be a candidate for re-elac-
tion and would not accept the nornina-
ton. AT the time of his appointment
ne had no opposition being appointed
on the petition of the bar of the dis
trict and since then he has never had
an opponent either for the nomination
or the election He had never been
candidate for any Office except the
judgeship although ilnportune& for
years to become a candidate fsi con
gress, but persistently refused desir-
ing to devote his time to his profess
sion When he announced his retire
ment from the bench it was with the
idea OF going into active practice.
Since his elevation to the bench he
has steadfastly refused to make cam
paign speeches declaring it to be i'm
proper for judge to do SO; prior to
that time he engaged in campaign
work especially during the campaign
0f Governor Boies."
The Judge seems to be a little mix
ed on his dates in that Latter section
it is we'll known that he accepted the
left the bench and was even drawing
ing for his present position.
One Of the "boy' members in the
house is Fred lands from Indiana,
barely thirty years old. Mr.. Landis'
brother is also congressman fro q
Indiana, the circumstance of the two
brothers in congress being from the
same state being an unique one which
occurs now In the annals of congress
for the first time in the history of this
country 1t was only about four years
ago that Fred Lands was sitting in
one OF the house galleries with Lee
McNeely an Iowa boy, who was priv
ate secretary to Speaker Henderson
and is now assistant secretary to the
committee on war claims 1t was the
opening day and the scene was bril-
liant one.
Lee" said Lands, chat looks pret
ty nice down there doesn't it? / EN-
going hcue and come to congress
that's what am going to to.s
McNeely was talking with the writ
er when Mr.. Lands was sworn in last
week and recalled the occurrence
There he is, a congressman all right
and that was only four years ago. he
said.
Col. Hepburn WAS chairman Of the
republican caucus that met just before