The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-08

during the Culberson-Henry regime that Standard Oil was banished from the state | to return under circumstances l shall not here attempt to relate, though 1t is a
 story futile in staltling incident Henry was four years in the attorney general S office and when he left Austin in 1895 it was to locate at Waco one of the
 most hourishing towns of Texas, in a
 magnificent farming community. Here he opened a law office, but soon was forced into politics.
 The American House of Representa-
 tives is not the greatest Senate in the
 world, simply because it abdicated that
 place. But it is a mighty forum, and
 there great regulations have been made. It is a slaughter-house where father would cut the throat of son, brother stab brother to the heart, for the sake of applause. There the hand of every
 member is against the hand of every other member. There every man is for himself, and no man can be called un-
 successful who has gained seat in the
 body made ilustrious by Clay, Calhoun
 and Webster, Toombs, Douglas and Crit tenden, Blaine. Carlisle and Reed, and a thousand others.
 I first saw Congress more than thirty years ago and it has greatly changed
 since then. No longer will horid elo- QueHC6 Dti1S uOWI lHt ilOuSt "A lldl
 must say something that amounts to more than sound to get attention there. He
 must appeal to the intelligence of his fellows or be laughed at.
 Bob Henry Is of the elite of the House.
 He is chairman of the committee on
 rules, that is well described in the fol-
 lowing by judge now on the supreme
 bench. then member of the Fifty-second Congress:
 sTNNbat ic ba ru1aGo
 is the instrument of the will of a ma-
 jority of this House. It can be the in-
 strument of the despotism of a ma iority
 of this House. It is all-privileged, as
 the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Reed) has told you. It can be delayed by only
 one motion-that is to adjourn. Oh gen. tlemen. you allow plenty of liberties In other directions, but you bind fast there
 When I think of it am inclined to think we were blunderers to you. You are art
 ists in the artful. and you do things with such refinement and finesse that 1t makes us marvel, although we know it is characteristic. In five lines you assert and grasp an absolute power, a power all-pervasive and ineXorable."
 That was when the Hon. Charles r.
 Crisp was giving the Hon. Thomas B.
 Reed an overdose of his own medicine.
 have not doubt that the British
 Commons is the greatest Senate in the
 world, and there is liberty of debate,
 bur In that body a man dare not be dull They will cry him down. They will
 make him quit. The commons house of parliament refuses to be bored. Hence. they have no record of speeches. such as
 that absurd publication we print at pub lie expense.
 This country has more law than all the rest of the world together, and we
 have so much law that nobody knows what it is, and we grind out law by the ton every year. MT. Robert l.. Henry may be called the man in the American Congress who has his hand on the lever. As chairman of the committee on rules he exercises an influence scarce second to the speaker himself. Thus he is an arbiter, and the American people are to be congratulated on the fact that the l'chairman of this great organ of the
 American Congress Is one whose integ- rity Is unquestioned. If he were to sell
 himself he could command millions. But l don't believe, nobody believes, that Bob Henry is for sale. He is not a rich man, but he can look the whole world in the face and tell without shame where he got every cent of the money that is his.
 Washington, May 30