Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-30
MAY STRIKE HENRY
Texan Prominently Exposed to
Cabinet Lightning.
HIGH IN WILSON'S REGARD
Frequently Mentioned for Attorney
General Portfolio by Party
Leaders.

| Some of the quiet observers who prog
| nosticate where the cabinet lightning is
| apt to strike were figuring today that
Representative Robert L. Henry of Texas,
| the head of the House committee on
| rules, would be in President Wilson's
| cabinet. Henry is progressive democrat,
and this is one of the reasons why these
| political prophets We're foreseeing thus.
That is. it was one of the reasons. Then,
| too. Henry is a simonpure Bryan demo-
crat, who pinned the Nebraskan to his
| banner way back yonder almost back
unto the time whereof the memory of
man runn'eth not to the contrary.
But that is not all. Henry is the head
of the powerful rules committee of the
| House, the first chairman of that body
who has not been Speaker of the House,
an office in the elective gift of his col
| leagues that ranks with the mighty ways
and means and appropriations commit
| tees.
Henry is the only man who has ever
| seriously thought of running for Speaker
of the House against Champ Clark, and
/ he declined to allow his name to be urged
as candidate against the doughty Mis-
| sourlan. Not that any man in Congress
today could wrest the honors away from
Champ Clark. for Clark's friends regard
/
out ripple of opposition but Henry
checked boomlet for himself by saying
he couldn't see it that way.
Big Feast in His Honor.
Down in the Lone Star state they think
a good deal of Bob Henry, for he's
plain Bob to thousands of people in the
southwest. Out I'm Waco they're getting
up big feast in his honor and Waco,
by the way, is his home town. They're
going to tear things out by the roots on
| March something-the date is fixed-but
| the Texan was busy looking after some
| constituents this morning and nobody
else recalled the date The Texas people
| say it's going to be one of the biggest
events in the state in some long years,
and that it'll be a holiday in that city
and for hosts of people in that section
| of the sovereign state that Sam Houston
| made famous.
But back to these cabinet observers.
Some of the House leaders who have
made their plgrimages to Princeton to
pass the time of day with the President
tO-he have come back with very little
real information as to the cabinet lean
ings of the incoming President, but they
rules committee chairman and that he is
in what might be called Mr.. Wilson's
| cabinet eligibility list.
Mr. Henry has been frequently men,
toned as a probability for the portfolio
of Attorney General. He has a good deal
| to say on the floor and in the committee.
+: but he isn't saying a word just now on
| this subject of cabinet lightning. Some of
his friends. though, say they wouldn't be
surprised, that the suggestion is a good
| one, that his long service in the House.
! his familiarity with legal questions and
| trust problems, the latter particularly
| since the rules committee tackled the pre-
| liminary moves in the Investigations of
| the money trust, the shipping trust, the
New England railroad monopoly situa-
| ton, which he finally dropped to avoid
| handicapping the Department of Justice
prosecution of the indicted railroad mag
| mates. and host of other things that go
| into the Henry record.
Antitrust Speeches.
Henry had few sharp things to say
about the trusts in a speech down in
Columbia, s. c., the other night. He
| made the speech of the evening and it
| made hit. It lambasted corporate
greed, pilloried monopoly and struck at
| the trusts. 1t was vigorous arrafgn
ment of the trusts 1t brought out a
number of tributes from the south, and
down in South Carolina Judge Eugene B.
| Cary, chief justice of the South Carolina
| supreme court, indited and dispatched
| this letter:
Never before in a short time have
felt SO strongly bound in friendly bonds
| to any one as to yourself. 1t is my sin
| cere wish that you may soon enter even
| larger field. in order that the country
may receive the benefits of your distin-
guished service" The publication Of this
| letter may surprise the Texan little.
His friends have been quietly figuring on
his record and his name is looming large
in the cabinet gossip. He is one of the
policy molders of the democratic House,
has only seven members of that body
ahead of him in point of length of serv-
ice, has been leader in every parlia-
mentary battle for clearing the way for
such legislation as his party has agreed
upon and has warm-hearted personality
that has made him strong friendships by
the score in Congress.