The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-01-28
ONE OF OLDEST MEMBERS
 OF TIE LOWER HOUSE
As Soldier and Politician Bankhead Has Brought Honor to Alabama. Now Serving on Two lmpor-
 tant Committees.

l of Alabama though Mr. Robertson of Louisiana became a member of the Ff- tieth it's second session, succeeding his father, who died in August, 1Ss7 There is but one democrat in the present Con | gross who served earlier than MT Bank head. MT. Talbott of Maryland was a member of the Forty-sixth Congress, but ! he has sat in but six Congresses in all. while Bankhead has sat in ten. Cannon. Bingham. Hitt Ketcham and Payne all entered Congress before Bankhead, and all have served longer than he. Grosve- nor. Hepburn and Hit all entered Con gress before Bankhead, but they are now in the tenth term, as MT. Bankhead Is. Herman, Powers of Maine and Keller were in Congress prior to 1887, but none of them has served as long as Bankhead. Marsh of Illinois. elected to the present Congress, had served in eight Congresses, the first the Forty-ffth. He died last summer.
 Mysteries of Constituents.
 Thus 1t will be seen that the American House of Representatives is virtually re- newed every twenty years-its member ship almost entirely changed It Is one of the weaknesses of our system that parties may be deprived of the services Of their ablest man in Congress by the whim or the folly of a single constitu- ency It Is not so in England. Although Mr. Balfour, the leader of his party, was defeated for the seat he held in the last Parliament by a Manchester conStlt- uency, 1t Is as certain as that he shall live that some other constituency will give him a seat in the House of Com mons
 E.van CfharIaa Ianoes TTnx nearly lost his seat after one dissolution, and he was only saved by those brilliant women who exchanged the kisses of their lips Tor the votes of butchers and tradesmen. Burke himself-rthe greatest name in Par liamentary history of any age, or of either hemisphere-lost the election at Bristol, and ever afterward sat for the small borough of Nation, made illustrious by his transcendent genius. With us 1t Is very different. Kansas took mysteries and retired John James Ingalls, New York, with greedy eyes and hungry belly, swapped the eloquence of Conkllng in the Senate for the pie of Garfield in the White House. Both Ingalls and Conk- ling were lost to politics ever after. It seems that our people love to retire congressman just about the time he gets to be fit for something. Unless a man Is distinguished for intellectual abilities when he first enters Congress he goes to the foot of committees or on obscure committees. There are exceptions to this rule when there Is a close race Tor Speaker in caucus, and the new member Is shrewd enough to market his vote au- vantageously, but the rule is that IL takes several terms for a congressman to learn the trade of legislation. The constitution has been perverted to such an extent that the departmental or executive duties or the average congressman are become the most Important of his duties" He IS an office broker, a pension attorney a claim agent, scotsman, a star route supervisor, a rural delivery fend, and several other things he has no business being; but that he will continue to be until some great political convulsion shall sweep over the country and decree that the executive and legislative departments of this government shall be divorced, and that has got to come some day.
 Soldier and Politician.
 On June 16 1861, John H. Bankhead was toiling in the field and he left the blow in the furrow at the call of arms. Marion county, Alabama, believed as inn plicity in the teachings of William l.. Yaneey as Ashtabula county, Ohio, be- I.eved in the preachments of Joshua H. Giddings They were as far apart as the poles, and though under one flag, strife-the strife of the field of slaughter was bound to result from the irrepres-
 
 the southern construction of the consu- tuition, and 1t would have come some day had there not been a slave in Amer ica or an African in the world. It was narrowly averted in 1S32-3, when the ne- gro was not an issue.
 Bankhead, then 19 years old, lacking few months, volunteered In the Sixteenth Alabama, and after some months serv- ice he was promoted to captaincy The regiment covered itself with glory at Shiloh. He was also in Buckners mag nificent and victorious charge at Chlcka- mauga, and fell severely wounded, rom which he did not recover until just be- fore the titanic battles around Atlanta, where he was twice severely wounded. He remained with the command, now ever, until the surrender, when he re- turned to his home and started anew to till the soil for a living.
 His comrades of the Sixteenth Alabama knew the man. They had seen him put to the test. tried in the fire of battle proved by the hardships of the march and the pivations of the camp. At the south, as at the north, 1t was inevitable that the returned soldiers should domi- nate in politics and lead public opinion. It was natural and it was right It was a fair, square, honest war-that Is, 'in- different honest" as Hamlet said-ahd when 1t was over the two sections strove to heap honors on the men who 1ought lt.
 And thus Bankhead got to be 8 poll tician. He served several terms in the state legislature and one term in the senate. He was appointed warden or the state penitentiary, and was the author or many reforms in that institution. brave man is usually kind man, and none but kind man should be the war den of a prison It is one of the sores on the body poitic-the convict question and there Is work here in every state for the loftiest benevolence and the iarg- est statesmanship of America. some or the best thought Is favorable to the plan of paying wages to convicts, to be de- voted to the support of their famiiies' and if the wage should be high enough 1t ought to remove the prejudices against convict labor and convict product.
 "Father of the House.
 In 1886 Mir. Bankhead was returned 10 the Fiftieth Congress and is now serving his tenth consecutive term in that pooy' If the next House should be democratic and General Bingham should retire. MT. Bankhead would be the Father or the House" if he should be a member or it: and Mr. Dalzell will be the fatner oi