Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1912-08-30
By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT


Washington, D. c., Aug. IL
James Hay. the Representative
of this District in Congress, must
recall with pleasure upon his re-
turn to his home the praises
which were given him by MEM
bers of both House and Senate
in the closing days of the ses-
sioa. He comes back to his dis
trict with the reputation of be-
ing the leading authority in this
country on all m alters relating
to the Army, a reputation which
he won by his unf1agging indus
try and brilliant work as Chair
man of the Committee on Mill
tary Affairs.
AT the session of Congress
drew on to its last hours, amid
the kindly words of farewell, the
wishes for successful campaigns,
the tributes to the big men of
the House, there were heard in
the corridors and Offices of the
Capitol those two oft-repeated
statements.
Oscar Underwood, by his
ceaseless adherence to real DEM
ocratic principles. has made his
party the victor at the polls next
November, and Hay of Vir-
ginia not only has proved his deep
and unfailing knowledge of the
Army and improved it in many
ways, but, by his work as a pre-
siding officer in the sessions of
the House and by the force of
his influence, has been Under
woods great lieutenant"
AS matter OF fact, the trib-
uteS to the two men had to be
united and intertwined through
the very force of recent political
history. At the beginning of
this Congress it was Hay who,
with FIVE other men, drew up,
elaborated and laid before the
caucus of the Democratic party
the proposition that the arbi-
trary powers and Czar-like priv
ileges OF the Speaker of the
House must be abolished, princi-
pally through depriving that
official of the power of appoint
ing all committees and exerc1s-
ing the undue influence thus
given him. 1t was Hay and his
followers who pointed out that
the cry of the country for a real
popular government in the House
must be answered and that the
answer could be found in author.
ling the Committee on Ways
and Means to make all committee
appointments after the Com
mittee on Ways and Means had
been elected by the House.
The satisfactory way in which
the plan worked, the wisdom with
which Underwood and his Com
mittee, always consulting with
Hay. ran the House, is sufficient
to prove that the representative
of the Seventh District of Vir-
ginia had taken his place per-
mently among the stat esmen Of
today. He had solved the prob
lem of how to make the govern
ment of the House strong, pro-
gressive, healthy business.
But that he, with his usual
ability, his answering conscien-
tiousness, would take such Il
course, and that he would figure
as one of the great men of his
party, were foregone conclusions.
The more brilliant achievements
ia this Congress were foreshad-
owed by the work he had already
done for sane, progressive, uplift-
ing craftsmanship in his home
state. Everybody remembers the
big part he played in the Norfolk
Convention in 1901 when a propo-
sition having been made to nomi-
nate United States Senators BY
the primary, he went to the front
and made the victorious fight for
the application of the same sys-
TEN to members OF Congress and
other state officials. The pro-
gressiveness, the response to the
will of the people, which he
showed in Norfolk has been mere
II reflected in more striking man.
ner in the large mirror of nat
iona1 affairs in Washington.
Mr.. Hays record as 4 worker
for his people. as = conscientious
student Of all political conditions
and az 4 debater of sharp and
telling force on the floor of the
House is too we'll known to his
own people to discuss it in this
article. But the bright and con-
quering manner in which he has
established himself as an au-
fhority on military affairs, as the |
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