The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1913-04-23
Fine Career of Youngest
Congressman.
HAS VIEWS LIKE LAF0LLETTE
How Printers Boy Arose To
Seat In Congress By
Worthy Effort.
Is A WRITER FOR THE HERALD
(By Robert f. Wilson J

Washington, ID. CAPRI 1S.-The
swearing in of Clyde II. Tavenner,
of Cordova. Ill.,, as the representa-
tive in Congress of the Fourteenth
Illinois District. was as much of a
triumph for Mrs. Tavenner as it
was for the young newspaper man
himself.
1t is a fact that Mrs. Tavenner
worked as hard in the campaign to
elect her husband as Tavenner did
himself. Furthermore, she knew
how to work effectively in his inter-
est. Before her marriage, Mrs.
Tavenner had for three years been
private secretary to United States
Senator Robert NJ. LaFollette, of
Wisconsin.
Mrs. Tavenner is 81 years old,
her Congressman husband is 81.
Tavenner has been a newspaper
man at the National Capitol during
the sessions of Congress for four
years. He knows every member of
Congress personally. and the fact
that he has been writing an article
a day for four years, has quite nat
urally resulted in his acquiring
much valuable and useful informa-
tion .on the tariff and other subjects.
Mr.. Tavenner is the Washington
correspondent of a number of DEM
ocratic weeklies. among which is
the Hartford, (ky) Herald. Mrs.
Tavenner says her husband is pro-
gressive of the LaFollette type, and
Tavenner replies that it is not nee
essary for anyone to prove it, that
he admits it.
Senator LaFollette is a Repub-
lican, or at least insists that he is a
Republican" says Mrs. Tavenner,
while Mr.. Tavenner is Demo-
crat. Yet so far as | can make out,
they seem to take almost IDENTICAL
ly the same viewpoints of the big
issues confronting the people.
'Of course | wasn't responsible
for Mr.. Tavenner's election.
helped in every way | could, how
ever. My husband and | work to-
gether in everything. can take
shorthand dictation quite rapidly,
and can run the typewriter pretty
fast. so you see. that, together with
my experience with Senator LaFol-
lette. makes it possible for me to
help him. Now that he is elected,
| take just as much interest in what
he does for his district as he does
himself. We both appreciate deep
ly that the people of the Four
teenth District believe in MS and
trust us to represent them faithful
ly, and We are working day and
night to make good"
Mrs. Tavenner was one of the
spectators in the galleries when her
husband was sworn in.
The oath OF Office was admins
tered to Tavenner by Speaker
Champ Clark, which in itself is a
rather remarkable coincidence. in
view of the fact that it was Speaker
Clark who first recognized Taven-
ner's ability as writer and who
has been a steadfast friend ever
since.
Tavenner received what he de-
clares was his most valuable edu-
cation while setting type lat the
the case" in country newspaper
Office for four years while boy. He
later conceived the idea that he
wanted to write articles on the
great issues under his own name.
and he went TO Washington. His
articles We're so Independent in
character that at first no newspaper
would publish them. Champ Clark
was attracted to the articles. looked
Tavenner up. found him working in
a hall bedroom and was so impress
ed that he decided to help him.