Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1905-10-19
AIIison's Record.

NHtSot nSCSt
In length of public service in high
station Senator William Boyd Allison
overtops all of his contemporaries, also
all of his predecessors, with the pos
sible exception of John Quincy Adams.
James G. Blaine in his wrath once
declared that the Adamses began hold
ing Office as soon as they were weaned
and continued to do SO until they died
of old age, which came near being true
in the case of John Quincy, who began
his official career at the immature age
of fifteen as secretary of legation at st.
Petersburg and closed it as a representa-
tive in congress in his eighty first year.
He was not in official station all the
time, but most of it, between his en-
trance and his exit
Allison has served forty and one-half
years in congress, eight in the house
and thirty-two and one-half in the SEN
ate, with an interval of two years be-
tween his careers In the two branches
He has served longer in the senate than
any other man that ever lived and has
still two and one-half years of his pres
ent term ahead of him. If he desires
a seventh term and the legislature
elected three years hence is Republican,
he will probably get it unless Governor
Cummins snatches his toga and makes
away with it.
Somebody told Speaker Henderson
once that he would succeed Allison
when the latter died, whereupon Hen
derson propounded the startling inqui-
ry, But when will Allison die?' a
question which many younger Iowa
statesmen occasionally turn over in
their minds Indeed, if Allison, who
is now only seyenty-six, should be
elected to a seventh full term in the
senate and serve to the end of it, he
would be only eighty-six, two years
older than Senator Edmund Winston
Pettus of Alabama, who still has three
and one-half years of his present sena-
torial term before him and who is GER
tain OF a reelection if he lives. ALI
son could even serve two and one-half
years of an eighth full term in the SEN
ate and then be younger than was JUS
tin Smith Morrill, of Vermont when he
died a senator. The senior senator
from Iowa is wonderfully preserved
man. Hope deferred maketh the heart
sick, and, taken all in all, those young
sters who are waiting for Senator ALI
sons shoes have not a cheerful pros
pect to animate them More than once
his chances for the presidency have APP
peared fairly good, but the glittering
prize always escaped him. Twice at
least he has not only been asked, but
pressed, to accept cabinet positions,
which he always wisely declined
An Iowan who knows all Hawkeye
statesmen told me recently that in
stump speaking Senator Allison deals
much almost entirely-in arithmetic,
that be fills the heads of his auditors
so full of figures as to make them dir
", that such a speech from anybody
else would drive his hearers away in
fifteen minutes by the town clock, but
that it would be considered sacrilege
for any one of his constituents to leave
while the senator is speaking. He also
avowed that Senator Allison is one of
the best mixers and hand shakers ever
known and that he keeps thoroughly in
touch with the people, his finger for
ever on the public pulse; hence his I'M
preeedentedly long lease on curule
chair which is generally regarded as
a freehold estate.