The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1909-01-21

'RlNCETON u MON: 81
universal uprising regardless Of party
to urge him to remain in congress.
The Democrats told him they would
put no opposition candidate in the field
and lived UP to the pledge.
The third occurrence is of more re-
cent date and is known Of all men.
When President Elect Taft offered the
secretaryship of the treasury to Bur-
ton that gentleman stood by his guns
and said he preferred to be senator.
1t took courage to do that. especially
when there was danger of creating bad
blood with a future administration of
his own party.
The new Buckeye senator has shown
the same sort Of independence all
through his career. Whenever there
has been an insurrection in the house
Burton was usually found at the head
Of it. He led the fight against the
senatorial machine" in Ohio, with
both Foraker and Dick leagued
against him. While he and President
Roosevelt are warm friends, he did
not hesitate to fight Roosevelt's pet
plan for four battleships and to criti-
else the administrators proposal to
buy Panama supplies abroad It is
plain that Theodore E. Burton not
only has gray matter, but uses it for
the purpose that God and nature in
tended. He is party man, yet his
conscience is in his own keeping.
One of Burton's most prominent
characteristics is caution. He never
takes stand until sure of his ground.
He is constructive, has nothing in
common with the knocker or pessimist.
On the matter Of appropriations he is
not an obstructionist, but there must
be sound reason for expanding public
money before he favors it.
A Leader of the Bar.
Mr.. Burton's middle name is Elijah.
which may be the reason that he tries
to conceal it. He comes from the
Western Reserve, where the New Eng
land conscience is still in full force.
He was born in 1851 in Jefferson, O.,
the home of Ben Wade and Joshua
r. Giddings. In his modest congress
sional biography. consisting Of eleven
lines, Burton says he was educated at
Grand River institute, Austinburg, O.;
Iowa college, Grinnell, Ia, and at
Oberlin college, Ohio, from which he
graduated in 1872. He first started
teaching, then studied law and began
practice in Cleveland, where, after the
usual vicissitudes and scant living of
the young lawyer, he rose to be one
Of the leaders of the bar. He got into
politics by being elected to the council,
after which the young men insisted on
his going to congress. He served one
term, then was out for four years
There was a reason for his being out
The reason was Tom l.. johnson. In
fact, the two defeats Burton has suf-
fered were both at the hands of John
son. 1t is shame that two such good
when there are so many mean men
that need running out Of politics.
In 1894 Burton went back to con-
gress to stay. 1t was Tom Reed who
picked him out for the rivers and har-
bors committee, where he has made
life burden to lobbyists and purvey-
OFFS of pork ever since. Reed loved
men with brains, and he saw signs Of
promise in the tall, angular. stoop
shouldered member from Cleveland.
Two of Senator Burton's most con-
spicuous services in public life, outside
Of being led up as a lamb for the sacri-
fee in the mayoralty election Of his
own city, were his great speech for the
Panama canal, in which he convinced
congress Of the ACCESSIBILITY Of the
lock instead of the sea level type. and
his speech nominating William II. Taft
for president in the last Republican
national convention. In the past few
months he has not only declined the
treasury portfolio in the Taft cabinet.
but was the most prominently men
toned candidate for speaker outside of
Cannon, which talk he stopped as soon
as it came to his ears.
Lives Much With Books.
In appearance Burton is nearly six
feet tall, wears clothes that do not fit
too well, has close cropped gray mus.
tache, contemplative gray eye, a
high forehead, sparse brown hair, a
grave, almost taciturn demeanor and
a smile that is rare enough to be ap-.
preciated when it comes. He, lives:
much with books, having all his rooms
at Washington filed with them, even
to the gas range and pantry shelves in
the kitchen. He sometimes drives in
the park for his health, but his few
leisure hours are usually devoted to
reading French literature and English
poetry. He takes an occasional trip to,
Europe: which he spends IN studying