South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-03-23
STATESMEN
REAL AND NEAR
Ky FRED c. KELLY.

WASHINGTON, March %. - Rep.
John Jacob Rogers of Lowell, Mass,
is thrice eligible TO be a charter mem
Der Of the Harvard Association OF
Youngest Members OF Congress.
a great many of. our youngest mem
berS of congress were turned out of
! Harvard six or seven years ago. The
/ association includes Rogers and Billy
/ Murray. both of Massachusetts, and
/ Lathrop Brown of New York none
/ of whom had accumulated much more
\ than the 80 years necessary for mem
| bership in congress at the time of
his election. LathrOp Brown even
now is barely 81, and he is not only
| the youngest member Of the present
! congress, but has the daintiest cutest
little mustache in the entire house.
Just year or two ahead of these
young chaps at Harvard was Frank
lin Roosevelt. youngest person ever
! assistant secretary of the navy. His
! uncle Theodore. who is one of the
| greatest as we'll as one of the best
known living eX-presidents of the
| United States, was also Harvard
man. Many more cases could be
cited
All this teaches US or ought 10.
! that being sent TO Harvard cannot
keep a man down if he has the stuff
in him. People who go about crack
ing crude jokes at the expense of
.
who have attended that school. might
perhaps employ their time more profit
ably in other lines. A young man
of the right sort can go TO Harvard
and get just as good an education as
he could at any institution in the
country.
But this little piece started out to
be about Rep. John Jacob Rogers,
and not learned dissertation on
higher education.
? q? Z? :? ? q?
Yes. why. indeed. is Rogers three
times eligible to be a member of the
Harvard Association of Youngest
Members of Congress?
oh. simply because he has been
graduated from that place three times
as often as any of the other Young
est Members. He has three degrees
from there, whereas none of the other
members boasts-if he does boast
. about it-of more than one. A. B.,
A. NJ. LII. B.-those are his degrees.
Ii took him seven years to get them.
but at the end of that time he was a
regular scholar-though still a hui
man being. He is probably the most
scholarly man of his years in congress.
His disposition is TO go clear down
deep into a subject and try TO bring
up a handful of gravel off the bottom.
From early boyhood Rogers has
had a desire TO see and to know. When
he was nine years Of age it occurred
to Rogers that he would like TO know
more about the properties of sulphur
matches. His parents seemed to have
certain information about matches
that they were trying 10 keep from
him, and the mystery of it preyed on
his mind one afternoon when his
parents were away. Rogers got box
of forbidden matches and went up
into the hayloft of the family barn
where he could be alone and expert
ment His plan was to strike the
matches one at a time and make care
; full observation of what happened.
When Rogers father returned and
found only ashes where his barn had
been before, he said things that dis
l couraged the boy from studying things
in the concrete From that time on
he has had a tendency to stick TO the
. abstract Up to the time he came TO
= Washington Rogers probably could
= not have named off-hand a dozen
q members of congress. Yet he knew a
great many things about American
constitutional history. and had spent
I. considerable time abroad studying
: various forms of government from
the point of view of the chOlar. His
favorite method OF ascertaining how
e to proceed with a given proposition Is
= to read two or three dozen large
books on the subject Let us suppose
for example. that Rogers was inter
i ested IL a bill to regulate hack stands
in the District OF Columbia His first
move would be 10 dash over TO the
! Congressional library and find out
what the Modes and PerSians did IT
8 regard TO hack stands Gradually he
G would trace the thing down TO modern
a times.
d However coaxing facts out of books
= is not the only way Rogers has OF
= learning about the world in which h
d, lives. He may look at things from
the scholarly angle. but ne always
looks. For instance. since he has
n been in congress he has never failed
: to walk when journeying between his
home and the capitol and has never
made the trip twice over the same
$ route In that way he has covered
= practically every little cross street In
q that part of Washington. Then. witf
those and other streets fresh in hi:
; mind. a map of the city before him
g he SITS down and reads histories o.
; the national capital.
Rogers has today a burning ambi
, ton. and that is 10 explore Washing
- ton even farther by means OF a PAL
n OF roller skates. With miles and miles
p OF streets as smooth as a ballroom
& floor. and newsboys rOller-skatin.
everywhere. why not a congressman
: on skates? Should humble news
j. boy have rights and prerOgatives tina
r. are denied congressman? Beinl
young and full of enthusiasm. an'
having the courage Of his convictions
the chances are that III Rogers desire
e to roller skate about the streets n
81 viii up and do SO. He may skate quiet
? " and unostentatiousiy after nightfal
. but he will roller skate.
Copyright. 1914. by Fred G. Kelly
All rights reserved.)