The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1910-12-16
CLARK'S S ANNOUNCEMENT.
How the Democratic Leader Made
Known His Candidacy.

Champ Clark, of Missouri, who prob
ably will be elected Speaker of the Hous,
in the organization of the Sixty-seconC
Congress, informally announced his can
didacy for that position February 27,
1908.
A whole Congress will have inter
vened between that announcement and
the realization Of the prospective Speak.
ers ambition. There was under con.
sideration on the floor of the House a
resolution relative to the reassignment of
office room in connection with the open
ing of the new dollar
House office building, and it was pro
posed = successfully - to remove the
Ways and Means Committee from the
very desirable and commodious quarters
it had occupied for years in the House
wing Of the Capitol in order to give the
Speaker an enlarged and imposing suite.
Champ Clark was defending the com
mittee against the territorial encroach
ment of czardom, and in one of the
drollest of colloquial speeches made in
Congress in recent years he said
"Mr. Speaker, | do not have any
J idea that the republic will cease to exist,
no matter how this question is deter
mined. Still, it is a matter of a good
deal of interest to the members of the
Ways and Means Committee and it is a
matter Of some importance to the other
members of the House. My friend
from Illinois Mr. Mann) offers me
very tempting bait-that after the 4th
of next March, in my capacity as
Speaker, | will occupy these rooms now
occupied by the Ways and Means Com
mittee. Applause and laughter.
II used to have a constituent named
Nat G. Dryden, a very brilliant man,
who was very fond of giving out this
dictum, "A bird in the hand is the
noblest work of God. Laughter. |
am the ranking Democratic member on
the Committee of Ways and Means, and
no matter how the cat jumps at the next
election | suppose, as a matter of ordin-
airy courtesy, | would retain that place
if the House were Republican; if Demo
cratic Why Barkis is willin in the
matter of the Speakership. Applause
"fhe situation about the Speakership
is this: There are 39l members in this
House. One of them is Speaker. and
not single one of the other 800 would
decline it if offered to him on a silver
platter. Now, the Speaker has small
room. In the present exigency in which
the presiding officer of this House finds
himself he ought to have two. Laugh
ter and applause. There are three
sorts OF people who wait ON the Speaker
-one set ON business, another set on
business and another set just to see the
Speaker and shake his hand That
room is not as commodious as it ought
to be for the Speaker. freely admit
that. Certainly he ought to have two
perhaps three.
II will tell you how feel about that
in connection with the Speakership.
The first time that my wife and | ever
attended White House dinner she was
assigned to the Peruvian Minister to
take her out to dinner She could not
talk any Peruvian laughter and he
could not talk much English, and though
| she is fine talker. the conversation
Jagged somewhat.
''But, sitting on her right was Mr..
Secretary of State John Sherman. She
had never been introduced to the Secre-
tary, but she recognized him by his
pictures. She had frequently told me
privately that she intended, if she ever
got close enough to him, to ask him
about the Crime Of 49, Laughter.
They scraped up an acquaintance,
and Secretary Sherman explained to her
how the President and his wife were
bedeviled with all sorts of people, and
how insanitary the conditions of the
house were, and that it wore the Presi-
dent and his wife to a frazzle and en-
dangered their health--even their lives.
After drawing as gloomy picture as he
could he asked her, Madam, would you
be willing to see your husband live in
this house four years with all that
trouble and danger and under those CON
ditions? With that good sense which
she exhibited when she picked her hus
band, she said: Yes, think | would.
Great laughter. She said she was
willing to take the chances of insanitary
conditions and nervous prostration to see
her husband in the White House for
four years.
/ ''Well, would like to see the Speaker
have two rooms. | would be perfectly
willing to accept the Speskership with
one or even without one. Laughter. I
- Chicago Record Herald.
Clinton McSherry Honored.