The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1908-04-17
K1TTREDGE IS RDEFATIGABLE.
The Silent Senator from South Dakota
Has Commanding influence with
His Senatorial Associates.

Has commanding influence with
His Senatorial Associates.
Samuel G. Blythe, the well known
author Of the department. Of "Who's
Who-and Whv,' 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 10 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
dom 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
frsm the vice president and begin. He
can spout and sputter for a month, If
he has the stamina and language, and
no power on 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 tho face and their hearers
purple. There are those who talk &C.
casionally, 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 W come to specialize
there is Kittredge, in a class by him
self-silent, inscrutable, doing a job Of
inscruting t~wenty-four hours a day.
Words are sacred Instruments with
Kittredge, not to be used lightly, not to
be uttered without consideration, and
once uttered, to stand. When Kit
tredge promulgates 4 statement, that is
all there is to it. He has thought it out.
He has framed it as he wants it. It 10
completed and there is no need for ex-
.planatery footnstes or voluminous ap-
pendices. He can listen for . week and
say nothing. One Of his widest tights
into vocal exposition 10 "Yes'' or "No'
and tho extreme limits Of loquacity are
reached when he says :"Thst 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 two, and IS for
e~xtraneous advancing Of opinion, with
out reason for it save 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. i
Kittredge is a big man on the inter.
oceanic canals committee in the senate.
He has gone into the subject with more
t~horoughness 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 var to know anything about
the canal he goes to Kittredge. He
gets the information he is after in .
few words. There are no 1ourishes, no
frills, no embroideries. "Yes,' says
Kittredge, "that is So" or "No, that
is not 500 There are no 81 am Of the
opinion" or "That is my supposition'
qualifications hitched on anything more
than "Yes' 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 done when many Of
the other senators are ordering around
the carriages to take them up ON the
hill. He gets to Washington on the
last train that arrives before the ses.
sion opens and he leaves on the first
train that goes ont after the session
closes. Between those TIVE trains he il
consistently, constantly - silsatly u
the works.