The Washington herald., 1914-06-13
Pelit;eal Prseessisa.
syr. \. q.

Elliott Northcott. late minister plen-
ipotentiary to venesuela, dropped INTO
washington on Thursday, made a call
OF respect At the state Department. took
look around the willard. remarked
there was no one left In washington
he knew. and hiked for home and farm
at Huntington. Yet few years back.
when Northcott was United States at
torney In Southern West Virginia and
chairman of the State Republican COM
mittee in campaigns Of real conflict and
splendid contributions to the war chest,
his visits to Washington were all else
than lonesome, and both Senators felt
honored II he called.
In those good days Scott and Elkins. in
the Senate, with solid Republican dele
CATION in the House. held the West Vir-
ginia party organization with grip OF
iron and with little fear Of break.
Today Northcott finds three Democrats,
Including Senator Chiffon. doing business
cheerfully and hopefully. and outside OF
Senator Con and Representative Hughes,
the Republican majority In the delegation
Is made UP OF new men. who hardly
aspired to Congressional honors In the
days Of the Northcott supremacy.
The late diplomat may have sighed
some as he missed the old gathering of
the faithful, signing. too. perhaps, that
Senator Scott no longer counts himself
a citizen OF the State that honored him
so often. Northcott remains young
man, and he may be heard from later.
but he certainly found things lonesome
in Washington this trip. and his emo
tons may impel a taking hold Of politics
again down Huntington way. with the
Northcott family again prominent. be-
fore the 1916 campaign begins.
Dan Hanna, whose father Mark Han
ma. came to the Senate at the age OF
sixty, Is declaiming against the return
Of Foraker. with a faint suggestion that
Foraker Is growing too old. This hardly
goes well out in Ohio. even among the
admirers Of bluff old Mark. as they re-
call that had Senator Hanna lived he
would no doubt have continued in the
Senate as long as he liked. When he
died there was a full term and one year
coming to him. and any one familiar
with the old Hanna way Of doing things
admit that he would have kept Ohio in
the habit of electing Republican Senator's.
Mark Hanna. II living today. would be
seventy-seven years old, four years older
than Foraker would be at the end of the
argument In used against Forsker's re-
turn by Dan Hanna and his Progressive
adjutants there is a pointing TO the Han
na family history. Then some of the old
Sherman adherents who cry age as
against Foraker are reminded that John
Sherman would have been seventy-six at
the end OF the Senatorial term for which
he was last chosen. and he was seventy
four when he resigned to enter the Nc
Kinley Cabinet as Secretary OF State.
Allen G. Thurman was sixty-eight when
he retired from the Senate. but fought
hard enough for a third term, the end
Of which would have found him seventy
four. and remarkably vigorous. He was
seventy-five when named for Vice Presi-
dent with Cleveland in 1855. and lived
seven years after that defeat.
Benjamin Tappan, an early Senator OF
the State. was seventy-two when he re-
tired. but lived TO be eighty-four.
Benjamin Ruggles had three terms, re-
firing comparatively young, and was
seventy-four.
The age argument will hardly harm
the Foraker cause and his nomination
at the primary is conceded. II he wins
the final election he will find many Sena-
tors much older and many who are now
older than Foraker will be at the end
OF another term.