The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-05-07
Speaker Of National House Is Seventh
Years Old.
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN TO BEGIN
HIS PERSONAL AND POLITICAL
FRIENDS WILL GIVE HIM CON-
ELEMENTARY DINNER.
WASHINGTON, D. c., May Z

WASHINGTON, d. c., May T.
Speaker Joseph G. Cannon, Of the
house Of representatives, is 20 years
old today and his birthday will be made
the starting point of a big pol.e.cal
boom, the object Of which is the nomi-
nation of Mr.. Cannon for the presi-
dency Of the United States. The friends,
personal as well as political, have ar
ranged a big reception and dinner in
honor of Speaker Cannon's birthday,
and it will be at the dinner tonight that
the boom will be formally launched.
Notwithstanding his seventy years,
Speaker Cannon is still hale and strong
and shows none of the failings con-
comitant to old age. The proposition
of starting a Cannon boom was sug-
gested some time last year and since
then it has been thoroughly discussed
by the friends Of Mr.. Cannon and
many Of the political leaders who are
not themselves aspirants to the nami-
nation. 1t is believed by many friends
of Mr.. Cannon that, leaving President
Roosevelt out of consideration, Speaker
Cannon is the only man who can save
the republican party from defeat at the
next presidential election.
The party leaders have been much
worried by the signs of radicalism
and the chances of a Bryan, Hearst
or a Bailey riding the popular wave to
some man "close to the people" They
say Root will not do. Fairbanks is out
of the question. Even Taft is now
doubtful, and the chances seem to favor
his accepting President Roosevelt's in
vitation to ascend the supreme court
bench. The Illinois delegation in the
house is naturally for Cannon to a
man. Illinois is his state The Indiana
members Of the house are in an en-
barrassing position. There is scarcely
a man of them whose heart Is not with
Cannon, but so long as they are men,
bers of the Fairbanks machine, they
feel that they cannot officially line up
their state with Cannon until Fair
banks withdraws There is movement
on foot to bring about this result
The Ohio members of the house do
not feel at liberty to declare for Cam
non at this time. The obstacle is
Senator Foraker, who has the presiden-
tial bee in his bonnet, although it is
an almost foregone conclusion that his
nomination would lead to a terrific de-
feat of the Republican party. For
aker has come out as candidate,
however, and that will probably tie the
hands Of the Ohio members.
Speaker Cannon holds the age rec
ord for speakers. When he took his
seat as speaker the first time Mr.. Can
non was sixty-seven years old. Even
at that age he was two years older than
his oldest predecessor at his retirement
William Pennington, of New Jersey,
who was speaker Of the Thirty sixth
congress from 1859 to 1861, was sixty
five years old when he stepped down.
He died the following year.
The tendency of late years seems to
have been toward selecting older
speakers. Previous to the civil war,
OF twenty-three speakers only Pen
nington, Jonathan Trumbull, who was
fifty-one, and John Varnum, who was
ffty-seven, were over fifty years or
age when they were elected, and there
were a number of rather youthful pre-
siding officers.
Counting Galusha A. Grow, who pre-
sided during the struggle, there have
been eleven speakers since the war and
all were men well advanced in life ex-
cept Grow, who was only thirty-eight
when elected. Schuyler Colfax was
forty when he took the chair first, and
forty-six when he retired. Blaine was
forty-five when he retired; Kerr, forty
nine; Keiffer, forty-seven; Carlisle.
fifty-four; Reed, fifty when he was
elected and just ten years OLDER when
he retired; Crisp was forty-nine when
he retired, and Henderson was sixty
three at the end of his second term.
The baby speaker was Robert M. T.
of the Twenty sixth congress and was
thirty years old when he was elected.
Simplicity in Church Music.