Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-04

With one hundred and twenty-eight new
representatives and sixteen new senator's,
tho new Congress begins today its active
career. The proportion Of strange faces
is greater than has been seen at any
opening Of Congress for a score Of years;
the absence Of familiar faces in the legis-
latiye halls Is more marked than at any
opening session since the civil war. Hale
Of Maine, the erstwhile nestor Of the
Senate, Is not there, and in his stead Is
Charles +. johnson, the first democratic
senator elected in Maine since 1s47. This
is the most radical Of all the changes.
perhaps, but 1t is indicative OF the nature
Of most OF them.
Notwithstanding the great changes that
become apparent today. 1t is a fact that
the congressional generation is gaining in
years. Many states and congressional
constituencies have learned the truth that
long service usually is the most useful
asset of a member OF either house of
Congress, and therefore they keep their
men in Washington year after year. Oc-
casionally one hears lamentation because
the modern member Of Congress is not
given the opportunity to stay in Wash
ington for a full generation, as were the
statesmen of the early days of the repub-
lic An examination of the record does
not Dear OUT llliS dSSuu1pIlOH.
X
* X
For instance. the Congress begins to-
day the second decade of the twentieth
century. The
A Comparison Twelfth Congress
ox began the second
nineteenth century November 4, 1911.
That was the young America Congress,
elected by the radical element that was
crying out for second war with Eng
land Henry Clay, who already had serv-
ed in the Senate, was d new member OF
the House and was elected Speaker, the
only time in the history Of the republic
that a representative without previous
experience in the House has been ele-
waited to the position in which Champ
Clark will today succeed Joseph G. Can
non. The Young America Congress Of
1911 represented the concrete result of
a "landslide' election. 1t had but three
senators and sixteen representatives who
had a record OF ten years service behind
them; that is, there were only nineteen
members Of the two houses who had sur
vived the political storms Of the first ten
years Of the century.
Today there are fifteen senators and
fifty-nine representatives who were in
service at the beginning Of the present
century. That means that $50 Of the 391
representatives and a of the % sena-
tors composing the present Congress have
begun their careers since the beginning
OF the present century, now just ten
years old.
The First Congress met in 1859. The
last congressional survivor of that body
dore Foster OF Rhode Island, who went
out of office at the end of the Seventh
Congress, after a total service Of fourteen
years. In the Twelfth Congress the
young America" body, that met just
a hundred years ago. the oldest member
was Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina,
who had served two terms as Speaker
and who came first to the Second Con-
gress. This was his last term in. the
House, rounding out a service in that
body Of twenty-five years. He went to
the Senate in the next Congress and stay
ed there for fifteen years, making a to-
tai congressional service of thirty-seven
years, record which stood for half a
century without equal. In that same
Twelfth Congress the next most venera-
bic member of the House had only four
teen years service to his credit.
Today former Speaker Cannon begins
his nineteenth term in the House, al
though his
Former Speaker Cannon record for
to Break All Records. ssr ru was
broken when he went down in the gen.
eral democratic landslide of 1890. He al
ready has served thirty-six full years,
and seems to be assured of thirty-eight,
the longest service any man ever has had
In the House of Representatives.
Representative H II. Bingham OF
1.-THE father Of the House."
today begins the duties of his seventeenth
term, while John Dalzell has
had already twenty-four years of con-
tinuous service and Serene E. Payne has