The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1903-11-17
HON. JOSEPH CANNON.
Mention Made of the Sturdy Old
Man Who PreSideS Over the
House of Representatives.
BY JAMES b. MORROW IN CLEVELAND
LEADER.

BY JAMES b. MORROW IN CLEVELAND
LEADER.
Washington. November 12.-Nature
when it means to be violent gives
sign. So, frequently, does man. If
John Marshall. the greatest Judge in
the annals of American jurisprud-
ence, in addressing a lawyer said, ''It
| is admitted, SIR" the lawyer knew his
case to be laid in ruins at his feet.
Even Daniel Webster confessed that
those four plain words sounded in his
ears like the bursting of bomb over
| his head.
Accordingly, when Joseph G. Can
non takes to his feet in the House of
Representatives and rolls back the
sleeves of his coat, men who know
his signs and premonitions prepare
for thunder and lightning. But Can
non is now the Speaker, and his man :
testations will be seen no more upon
the floor. His explosions will be
private. In his own room at the
Capital he win call to judgment those
who, he thinks. purpose to be prodigal
with the public money.
Mr.. Cannon is an extraordinary
man in business. For many years he
has been at the head of the COM
mittee on appropriations. IN truth
he has been the whole committee.
Billions of dollars have been spent,
and not a cent of it has gone out
without his consent. If his service
could be measured in money his salary
would be larger than that of ths
president. AS it is, he has been given
5000 year; so long as he isSpeaker
he will receive IS. 900 year.
Under the practice of today the
lchi~f officer of the House Is pow
lerful man in egislation-more pow
) erfnl by far than he was twenty
Years ago. A committe on rules
four members, two from each politi
cal party and the speaker-contro
the House absolutely, The Speaker
appoints this committee, and bill
, can't pass, can't even be debated un
It'll the committee gives consent
Therefore, in Washington the new
lSpeaker, Mr.. Cannon, is an especia
. favorite of fortune. Bolted doors fll
open at his approach. Men bow dowI
before him. He has a sumptuou
Office of his own at the Capitol, ant
a dining room which no one can ente
D unlimited. Cannon has looked to tn,
: Speakership for years. McKinle,
WANTED it, but Reed beat him at th'
election. Reed once said Cannon
can do things" Cannon can.
The father of the speaker was
country doctor, and was drowne'
while on his way to see a patient
The family left North Carolina an
the Quaker settlement there an
Iwent to live in Indiana, on the Wa
I bash River. At the tender age o
fourteen Joseph took up the tolls
life. He clerked in a back wood
store until he came of age. Wit
$500, which he had saved, he went I
study law in Terre Haute, completin
his education at the school for Law
yers in Cincinnati.
Early, therefore, Joseph G. Canno
was ambitious, Industrious, econom
lcal. He was born honest. Foo
very poor, he sought clients in on
village and then another. Soon b
went to live in Tuscola, Ill. Ther
he met Mary Reed, and was wedde'
A story is told concerning him an
his marriage story which, if nj
s ture, is illustrative of his abruI
manners and his quality of speecl
1t is related that officers in the QUA
er church rebuked him for taking
wife outside of the faith. but pror
ised to overlook his offense If
would acknowledge that he regrettt
his act. As the anecdote runs, Ca
non replied: But I'm damned If
am sorry, and I'll be damned II / 81
it, Mary Reed was a good wife,
woman of education and prudenc
She bore two daughters. One
them, Helen, is here, mistress of h
fathers home. The other lives
Danville. H., the wife of the pre-
ident of national bank.
A YOUNG LAWYER IN AN ILLINOIS VI
LACE.
For two years Joseph G. Cam
practiced law in Tuscola. If he h
lawsuit in a village thereabouts
walked. BY and by he bought hori
and rode the circuit with the 9th
lawyers. He tells in his old age, a
notwithstanding the honors whi
- have come to him, how he bought
Il pig in Tuscola-how he took it hol
}i-how he and Mary Reed fed it a
} fattened it, and how he gave it to
{ farmer. 81 had watched over til
pig so long, he says, that Icould
}jkill tit seemed like a member
Z the family Forty-two years a
Z Cannon was elected attorney of
county in whi~h he lived, and he
been in Office ever since-ever sin
except for two years following
7 enactment of the Mckinley law.
Sent to Congress fifteen tim
nominated each time but one by
,.;1- -as;di1n rtirallv % in