The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1908-04-17
IS 1NpEFAT1eABLH.
The Silent Senator from South Dakota
Has Commanding influence with
His Senatorial Associates.

Inc 6lleuC SENATOR from SOuGn Oak0Ca
Has Commanding influence with
His Senatorial Associates.
Samuel G. Blythe, the we'll known
author Of the department of "Who's
Who-and Why" in the Saturday
Evening Post (Philadelphia) wrote as
follows under date of March Is, 1907:
In a senate, where language is the
cheapest commodity in the world, the
quality of silence is SO conspicuous that
the man who can hold his tongue is
pointed out as a prominent bit of seen
cry. "That big, quiet man there is
Senator Kittredge," says the Capitol
guides to the pop-eyed tourists. "He
don It say anything, but he cuts lots Of
ice."
A United States senator has the
greatest opportunity for speech the
world has ever known. All he has to
do is to rise in his place get recognition
from the vice president and begin. He
can spout and sputter for a month, IL
he has the stamina and language, and
no power or earth can say him nay.
There is no obligation on him to stop
until he has finished what he has to
say. There are senators who demand
this right. There are statesmen in the
upper house who talk until they are
black in the face and their hearers
n,r~1> Tbar> ~ &bo.n -Lo coll, oo-
c%asionally, and those who say nothing
because they have nothing to say, which
is a condition that works around to the
steady performers oftentimes, although
their audiences and not themselves are
best aware Of it. These are general d.
versions. When We come to specialize
there is Kittredge, in a class by him
self-silent, inscrutable, doing a job Of
inscruting t%wenty-fsur hours a day.
Words are sacred instruments with
K%ittredge, not to be used lightly, not to
be uttered without consideration, and
once uttered, to stand. When Kit
tredge promulgates a statement, that is
all there is to it. He has thought it out.
He has framed it as he wants it. It is
completed and there is no need for ex-
planatsry fsotnstes or veluminous ~.
~pendiees. He can listen fer q week and
say nothing. One Of his widest fights
into vocal exposition is eyes" or emo"
and the extreme limits Of ~lequacity are
reached when he says :"That is right"
or "That is yrong." What, argues
Kittredge, is the use Of taking forty
words to express a fact when you can
express it with one or tive, and as for
extraneous advancing Of opinion, with.
out reason for it rave the desire to get
opinions in the air that wastes time that
can be used in listening to the opinions
of others and for their mental dissec.
ton.
Kittredge is 4 big mal on the inter
oceanic canals committee in the senate.
He has gone into the subject with moro
thoroughness than any man in the SEN
ate, with the possible exception Of
Senator Morgan, who has been study
ing the problem for more years than
Kittredge has, but to no greater effect
SO far as knowledge goes. When any
senator wants to know anything about
the canal he goes to Kittredge. He
gets the information he is after in a
few words. There are no hourishes, no
frills, no em~broideries. "Yes,U says
Kittredge, "that is So" or "No, that
is not So" There are no "I am of tho
opinion" or "That is my supposition"
qualifications hitched on anything moro
than eyes" or "No" savors Of tautol.
ogy to the Kittredge mind.
He works all the time. His concep.
ton Of the duty of a senator is to take
part in pending legislation and to be in
his seat in the senate when measures
of Importance are under discussion. He
has nothing to say on the floor except
at rare intervals, but he has so wide
a knowledge Of what is going on that
his brief counsel is universally sought.
He gets up before six O'Clock every
morning, and is in his committee room
before seven, rain or shine. He has
half a days work lone when many Of
the other senators are ordering around
the carriages to take them up on the
hill. He gets to Washington on tho
last train that arrives before the SEES
sion opens and he leaves on the first
train that goes ont after the session
closes. Between those tive trains he IL