South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-03-03
Statesmen Real
and Near.
BY Fred c. Kelly

WASHINGTON. March Willard
! salisbury Of Delaware is probably our
most predestined United States sena-
\ tor.
/ Away back in the gummy and
misty past il was in the cards that
\ he should have "a seat in the senate
[ lie could no more have helped be-
I coming a senator than he could have
/ avoided living in Delaware and his
/ residence in Delaware was fixed for
I him a great many years ago by no
| less person than William Penn
Old Will Penn, it will be remem-
| bered. was the nations first great
I real estate shark. He would take
! three of four strings OF beads, a
couple of blankets, and a few pieces
of bright colOred yarn, and go among
the Indians boastfully exhibiting these
gaudy but inexpensive articles. The
Indians would cOvet them and he
would begin TO diclxer. When he got
through. the Indians, who possessed
only a scant sense of proportion,
would have his dimes worth of beads
and he would have two or three hun
dred square miles of rich timber land.
One of the real estate operations that
Penn loved to deal with was Lord
Baltimore, who controlled the land
that is now Maryland and Delaware.
/ IL properly approached, Lord Balti-
more could be drawn into realty
transaction by which he would part
! with a great deal of land for little
more than the cost OF round OF
drinks. Sometimes when one looks at
certain lands in Maryland one is not
sure that Lord Baltimore got any the
worst of the bargain at that. while
ago a real estate man undertook TO
sell me a piece of land near Baltimore
! that he said was ripe for allotment.
l When l looked at it / found that the
land was entirely under water and
one would have to allOt it by the
/ gallon instead of by the front foot.
That real estate agent and William
Penn would have been great company.
However, we're straying from the
main thread of our tale, which is
supposed to deal mostly with sen.
Willard Salisbury. Well, one of
I William PENIS real estate purchases
! from Lord Baltimore was a little
chunk of land that formed what is
1 known today as the state of Della
/ ware BY that time Penn had ac-
/ Quired practically all the land he need
/ ed for his own use, and he let one
/ or two friends in on the Delaware
| deal. One Of these friends was KIN
/ to Sen. Willard salisbury, VINO now
owns 400 acres or so that was involved
/ in that same transaction. The land
! has never been decided since Sauls-
| bury's early ancestor first came by IT,
/ but has always been passed down by
! inheritance Thus we see how the
Saulsbury's became identified with
/ Delaware. When man is a MEMBER
| of an old family in a state as small as
! Delaware it is not altogetf {. easy Tor
/ him to avoid being drawn into pohtlcs.
! Salisbury is the third of his family TO
| serve in the United States senate. his
| father and an uncle preceded hlm
/ He has known for 80 years or more
/ that he might as well resign hlmsell
| to becoming a senator. AS youngster
| whenever he expressed a childish de-
/ sire to be a cowboy or a freight brake
4 man or a livery stable proprietor ms
! folks were certain to remind him that
il should be his ambition to go to the
/ United States senate like his dad
and his uncle.
/ For time Salisbury tried TO eX-
tricate himself from the meshes OF
fate. but it was no use, as he soon
came to realize. When he was
finishing up a prankish career at the
university of Virginia he greatly de-
| sired to become a mining engineer
He wanted to go out west, help eA-
/ tract mineral wealth from the bosom
! of mother earth and be real pro-
Queer. AS soon as Saulsbury's father
heard of this he rounded him up
and placed the lad in his Office with
a copy of Blackstone in his lap.
Salisbury then made a discovery
that studying law had certain adj
I Vantages. For example, ne cOulu
get his reading all done by 10 O'Clock
in the morning and devote the rest
Of the day to rowing and hshlng;
| This seemed to him entirely fair ana
reasonable. and he recOnciled him.
self to becoming a lawyer.
Though he is serious, almost
fierce looking person. salisbury IS
not half so serious as he looks, ana
is not fierce at all. To the contrary
he has an exceptionally engaging
personality: and also habit OF
sticking to his friends clear up 10 the
last toOt of the whistle.
There was no possible way for him
to keep out of politics. 1t was IN
1899 that he first began to be nom
mated for the United States senate.
He has been the democratic caucus
nominee at every session of MS state
legislature since then until 1919.
81 Now. il stands to reason that II a
man permits himself to be nominated
for a position over and over again
he runs the risk Of carrying MS
pitcher TO the we'll once too often.
Sure enough. in 1913, the Delaware
legislature was democratic and Sauls-
bury was elected-just as II was in
tended and foreordained that he
should be clear back in the days OF
William Penn. and. doubtless, ever
much longer ago than that
Copyright, 1915, by Fred {. Kelly -