The Springdale news., 1914-02-06
SENATOR CLARKE GIVES
 ACCOUNT 0F STEWARDSHIP

fact that he is now president pro tempore of the Senate. d position universally recognized there as one of the highest importance and hon or He said it came to him practi cally unsolicited, the vote by which he was elected being two to one against one of the oldest and ableSt Democratic senators Oh the floor II was a tribute of confidence that he highly priZed, and labor of respon sibility that he had striven to per form ereditably. He said he had been for more than six years one Of the nine members of the steering committee of the Democratic party These members are chosen for their standing and genral intelligence and the confidence that their associates have in them. They are charg q i'll a general way, with the superyis ion of party matters in the Senate and particularly with the assignment to committees of tHe members Of the party; that he himself had been as signed to service on nearly every important commit iii the Senate including judiciary foreign relations commerce, military affairs and in rstate commerce, that i'll conse quence of the gft eat inter st his people had in the commerce commit tee, which is the rivers and har bors committee Of the senate, ht surrendered his opportunity for ad ydheement oh tine judiciary commit tee 10 accept service on IAe com merca eommitt- =. he said also h. was q member of the e9fumsttee ou tn revision of tEe Iaas, and as such participated q in tae vision ol the criminal and civil codes of th
 Unit q States that in =the ease oi the former he was instrumental in having omitted many of tHe unfair and oppressiy reconstruction and kazkluX IaWs chat mad be H pass q during the dark days s8cce6 ding tfe Civil War that he had also been largely instrHmt ntal in -baslng the words war Of tAe rebellion omit ed from governmental publication aud had sHBst t4ted th fefer the term ~Giyil=8a when d.beeame necessary to refer to that etsuts
 Work=in Washington.
 fhaGhe had from tmeZto tine participated in .the cons l ration and debate of all the great biIls that have been cons der9d b4 Congress since his services began that this is notably trHe in connection with legislation under which the Panama Ianal Was authoriz q, the railroad rate bill reei%ed q and perfected, the immigration laws, and, to t sr ater or less extent the tarff ##~ and finally he took part nor #4l. lese aets Iy in conn etion With tAe cur reney IeeiS ation, that fl ute Hft seen
 vain To catalogue all of the instance $ wh#re l3e had secured recognition anon. his associates, but That eir cumstanees caus him To make some refer nee to this because ot the low character of assaults that had been mad upon him.
 He said t was charged that no great measure of lesisIation bears his name He said he Was quite willing to admit, because until March last. no great measure ot legisla ton bore any Democrats name dur ing the past l. or 2o years Gf al measures of legislation are ln this day administration propositions, and tho minority party has not had at45 oppoI dHltS Io pdi llSlpdtt III d4lS tt' fluential way in the deve lopmcnt ol any such measures. They may d'S cuss them and point out defects tn minor and administration mattrs but the fundamentals are always an der the control of the majority. N ith ont intending to institute compati son that is odious, he begSed q To say that he has to his err dit as many achievements as any Democrat among his associates, and he chatl enged contradiction of this stateme [
 Looked Out for Arkansas.
 He said that so far as the local interests of Arkansas are concern ed. he made this statement without fear of successful contradiction, that the local interests of thp state had b ell cared for as well d. those ot any othre state in the union, and that he challenged any fair minded and honest man to point out q sim le instance where activity on lis part or the part of any other sena- tor could have secured for the state more than has been obtain q
 He said that he secured an ap- propriation of onehalf million doll. ars for the construction of two dredges to operate upon the Arkan- sas River. that these dredges are now in process of construction, and will be completed and ready for ser vice the first of May; that he has secured public building sites at Jon S boro, Searcy, Prescott, Conway, and that he had recently caused bill to be passed granting a site for q courthouse at Helena. Ark, and has secured public building sites at several other places in the state; he asserted broadly that he had been alert to look after the local inter ests of his state, particularly the problems connected with the over flow of the bottom lands. He said that he had just recently obtained an appropriation of $l0o,000 to r., pair the caving banks at Hel na. and nearly as much to repair the cavine banks in Crawford County, and over $50 900 to repair the banks near the state farm in Lincoln County and a variety of smaller appropriations for similar and equally important pur poses He said that he did not pfe-