The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1914-07-10
SENATOR HOKE SMITHS RECORD
OF WORK IN WASHINGTON

! /
| L 1911, that Hoke Smith, leaning on
the arm of Senator Augustus Octavius
Bacon, walked down the aisle of the.
senate chamber TO the vice presidents
desk to be sworn In as a senator of the
United States.
He had been a member of President
Clevelands cabinet and had been twice
governor OF Georgia, but there was an
air Of reserve, almost diffidence, as he
took his seat on one Of the back rows
after the ceremony. New senators are
1 always given one of those seats and
| later on they get something better
either by process of drawing or filing
| a claim in case of vacancy.
The senate is so old and so self-sat-
isfed that the advent of a new mem
Der hardly excites a mild curiosity.
! The senators knew of Hoke Smith,
/ but only the. more prominent ones
knew him personally, for it had been
nearly twenty years since his sojourn
In Washington as secretary of the in
| terror
| AS the hum-drum of routine went
on the new senator began to take in
his surroundings. He studied the sena-
tors as first one and then another
would, from day to day, engage in de-
bate. 1t was pretty much as if he were
studying an antagonist-the lawyers
| on the other side in a great law case
Before him were members of the great
est law-making body in the world
more than ninety of the picked men of
the United States. The game was old
to them, for they had debated questions
| OF government among themselves for
a decade or a score of years. Attentive
| In high degree to all that was said,
| Hoke Smith was in reality weighing
| the men with whom he was to con
| tend in the enactment or defeat of
l legislation. The Republicans were
In power and over on that side stood
Root and LaFollette, Lodge, Penrose,
SmoOt Sutherland, McCumber, Cum
minis and others, an air of confidence
| and a smile of satisfaction on every
| face. The Democrats we're to be played
with as cat would play with a mouse.
| Hoke Smith observed it all, but before
| the Christmas holidays came he had
sized up the senate and knew the fight
Ing weight of most of the men on the
| other side. He knew their strength,
| he knew his own and he was not dis
| turbed.
His First Speech.
There was tradition that new sena-
tors should not rush forward in debate.
They were supposed to confine their la
| bors to answering roll call for at least
a year. But HOke Smith got past that
ancient idea so easily and so quietly
| that he did not even slightly jar the
senatorial dignity. Just a little speech
In favor of the children's bureau in
| Washington-not speech on the tar
H. or the trusts, or the currency
! only modest little talk about the well
fare of children, made by an ex-mem-
Der of the cabinet, ex-governor, a big,
broad shouldered man from whom
might have been expected a thunder
GUS exposition Of some international
question But it broke the ice. Hoke
Smith had made his first speech in
the senate. And the bill which he
had advocated was passed.
One thing that was noticed was the
| fact that the new senator's voice was
| distinctly Southern, so clear that
without effort it was heard in the
| most remote corners of the gallery
and so softly modulated that it fell
pleasantly upon listening ears.
There came along in few DAYS the
matter of committee assignments for
the new senator. What would he have,
| the Republicans wanted to know.
! place on the agricultural committee
and place on the postoffice commit
tee, was the answer. Oh, no, no, he
! could not get those places.
Then, leave me off entirely" was
the reply. Il would just as soon take
nov Of cole
ate"
And then the Republicans saw that
while the new senator's voice was soft
enough there was the glitter of steel in
his gray eyes that meant trouble and
they went off by themselves and came
back and said he could have the two
committee places for which he had ex-
pressed a wish. What Senator Smith
has done with those committee places
will be told of little further down in
this article.
His Early Work in the Senate.
Early in the session the house passed
a resolution to dissolve a treaty with
Russia which had been in existence for
long period of time 1t involved the
right of naturalized Jews to return to
Russia and was very delicate interna-
tional question. Russia was the friend
of this country. There was no objection
to the abrogation of the treaty, but
the house resolution was Extensively
worded. Senator Smiths second speech
was in support of an amendment modi-
flying the language in such a way that
it would not offend a friendly power
and the position which he took was
, sustained by the senate.
When the arbitration treaties known
as the peace treaties came up Senator
Smith pointed out that under the bill
as proposed vital questions of our gov
eminent could be passed upon by arbi-
tration, possibly forcing the United
States to abandon positions heretofore
held or to repudiate it's treaty agree
ments. The resolution was amended so
as not to include the admission of
aliens to the United States or to the
educational institutions of the several
states; the territorial integrity of the
several states; alleged Indebtedness of
any state, the maintenance of the Mon
! roe doctrine or other purely govern
mental policy.