The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-04-06
On CONGRESS 10 YEARS.
Was Also the First Ambassador
to Mexico.
Now Assistant Secretary of the
Interior.

Mr.. Ryan will be So years of age
on his next birthday; which was
fact noted by all his friends in his late
fitness, because they feared that
the ravages of grippe and its results
might undermine him in his advancing
years. But today he is back at his |
big desk in the department of the /
interior, and looks well and strong.
His face is tar1ed with exposure in the
outdoors at Atlantic City, where he |
took trolley rides, walked on the board
walk, and loafed in the sands at the |
waters edge after he got strong |
enough to leave his rooms.
The assistant secretary was born at I
Oxford, New York, November IS, /
1887. He lived in Bradford, Pa, from |
his infancy until 1865. That year he /
moved to Kansas, which has been his |
home since-a period of forty years.
He entered the union army in 1862, |
and was mustered out in 1854 because /
of wounds incurred in the campaign of /
the Wilderness. He attained the rank l
of captain.
Mr.. Ryan studied law and had been |
admitted in 1861. When he located /
at Topeka, he went directly into prac- |
tice. He became county attorney of |
Shawnee county in 1857, and served /
in that Office eight years, or until |
1875. In addition to this, he became, |
in 1873. assistant United States dis |
trict attorney, and held the Office from |
1873 to 1877, when he entered con- |
gress.
Mr.. Ryan was elected to congress in |
1876. At that time Kansas had but /
three representatives, and his district |
was a big one. It covered the south |
east, the central and the south cent |
raj and southwest parts of the state. |
After the redistricting in 1888, how
ever, he got the old Fourth district,
surrounding Shawnee, and remained |
in this until he left congress.
The service of Thomas Ryan in con-
gress has not been exceeded by any
house member from Kansas as to
time; and only equaled by Charles
Curtis, who has served the same length
that Ryan did; and will, after the pres
ent term, exceed him.
Twelve years in the lower house was
Ryan's record. He entered the house
March 4, 1877, and left it in March,
1899. He had commenced his seventh
4 term, when called on by President
Harrison for higher duties. The record
4 of Mr.. Ryan in the house of repreSen-
! tatives was most creditable. He was
I an important member from the start.
4 His greatest service was on the COM
mittee on appropriations. This com
mittee, next to ways and means, is
the most important in the house of
/ Representatives. 1t personally super
Vises the distribution of the govern
ment funds amounting, in these latter
days, to nearly three-QuarterS of a mill
lion dollars annually. This is a big
sum for a dozen men to handle; and
I to be one of the dozen is most dis
| tinguished honor. Out of the apprO-
/ DriatiOnS committee of the house of
/ representatives men go to higher hon
/ ors repeatedly. This year two of its
members have been graduated to the
| United States senate-its chairman,
/ James A. HomenWay, of Indiana, who
succeeds to the place in the senate so
! long held by the new vice president,
1 Mr.. Fairbanks: and E. J. Burkett, the
! bright young Nebraskan, who succeeds
1 former Governor Dietrich in the great
Ioo ell of he a.
| ceeding them two years in his honOrs
/ was Joseph G. Cannon, who left this
| great committee on appropriations to
be made speaker of the house of rep
! resentatives.
Ryan was useful to Kansas and to
! the country. He was a hardWorking
man. He mastered details; and he was
| diligent and studious. He was no ora
I tor; but he knew facts. Plumb was
hard worker; Senator Longs house SER
| vice embodied these qualifications; and
/ Charles Curtis is known for his indie
/ fatigability. But Ryan was none the
less inferior in this respect to the three
named.
In Ryan's last congress, the famous
! Fiftieth, and its successor, the Fifty
! first, Kansas attained the highest point
of success in Washington. Its pair IN
4 the senate, Plumb and ingalls,, made
4 the state famous, the one by his tireless
work and stateSmanlike qualities; the
other by his oratory and his wonder
]
J mentarian. In the house. Ryan was the
4 dean of the delegation. Close after him
on the Kansas representation were
| these: Morrill,, chairman of the com
mittee on invalid pensions, and an au-
thOrity on that subject Judge samuel
| r Peters. member of the committee or
| postoffice and post-roadss the only one
4 Of consequence on that great committee
! Kansas ever had, and practically its
Onlv member until Victor Murdoch;
! later
States senator, who was chairman OF
Indian affairs; Edward H. Funston,
! chairman of the committee on agricul-
/ ture; John A. Anderson, who was one
/ of the strong men Kansas has had in
| congress in its forty years as state
/ These days are often recalled by the
men here who have made 1t a business
/ for a generation of going to the capitol
on the hill and observing congressional
sessions and debates and the inner
workings of the committees.
/ But there need be no complaint on the
part of Kansas; for it is rapidly secur-
| ing a delegation that VIII equal mat OF
Ryan was an intimate friend Of Nc
! Kfnlev In congress. while Mckinley
was chairman of ways and means, and
| before that when he was an important
! member of the committee, Ryan had
/ high place on appropriations The re-
| laffonshfp between these two commit
] tees. dealing with the fiscal affairs Of
the nation, is pronounced. Ways and
means derives the nations revenues;
/ appropriations distributes them The
! friendship between the two men was
/ warm and fasI.
| president Harrison made Thomas
RYAN the first ambassador this country
had to the sister republic on the south
| Mexico Ryan resigned as member OF
] congress. and took the 3nbassadorial |
duties upon himself He made good
/ representative Of this country, and re-
/ tired with the Harrison administration
4 II 1893 From then until 1897-which is
/ the only hiatus in Ryan's forty years Of
continuous public service-he was out