New-York tribune., 1918-10-29
Eugene Hale

Eugene Hale
Eugene Hale was one of a group of
powerful men who for three decades or
more gave the State Of Maine an extraor-
dinary influence in national affairs. In
that group, besides himself, were James
G. Blaine, William P. Frye, Thomas B.
Reed and Nelson Dingley. Blaine and
Reed were Speakers of the House Of
Representatives. Blaine WAS twice Sec
retary of State, four times q candidate
for the Republican Presidential nomina-
ton and once the Republican nominee
for President. Frye was for many years
President pro tempore Of the Senate.
Dingley was the leader Of the House.
Blaine, Frye and Hale served in each
branch Of Congress. Reed, with his i'm
patience of Senate methods and preten-
sions, scorned an election to the upper
chamber. He had weaknesses of many
Of the members of that body in mind
when he coined the epigram: "a states
man is a politician who is dead"
Hale outlasted all the others. He en-
tered the House of Representatives in
1869 and served there ten years, losing
his seat in 1873 through the sudden
fare-up in Maine of the greenback move
ment. In 1881 he entered the Senate,
serving until 1911
He lacked Blaine's imagination and
magnetism, Frye's intensity and oratori-
cal fervor, Reeds genius for clarity and
subtle illuminating irony; yet in his
earlier years in the House he was one of
the competent debaters on the Republican
side, and he never lost his forcefulness as
speaker when the spirit moved him,
which happened more and more rarely
during his career as Senator.
Hale's great influence on legislation
was the fruit Of long experience and
painstaking labor. He was associated
for many years on the Appropriations
Committee of the Senate with William
B. Allison. These two knew the gov
ernmental structure as few others have
known it. The work of every depart
ment and bureau passed under their
eyes. They had that grasp of the details
of administration which creates author
ity. And their advice was seldom dis
regarded
Power in a body like the Senate CEN
tralizes in the hands of the men who
do things. So in Hale's time, after Ali
sons departure, it centralized in his
hands and those of Nelson W. Aldrich.
Their control of the Senate was undis-
puted through the Mckinley, Roosevelt
and Taft eras. 1t was finally broken, not
from within, as Joseph G. Cannon's was
in the House, but by the ferment of
radical and progressive feeling without
in sense, Senator Hale was the
father" of the new navy He was the
controlling member Of the Senate Com
mittee on Naval Affairs during all the
period when the new steel fleet was be-
ing created, and his great energy was
constantly applied to Fastening the work
He was opinonated at times about naval
policies. More than any one else he was
responsible for the Idaho and Missis-
sppl, abnormal battlcship types, which
the United States was glad to sell to
Greece. But his share in bringing our
PASoSAo navy lIlO Uclls5 VIII always Dulk
very large.
Violent in his prejudices and over
weening in his own opinions, Hale fire.
quently clashed with other party lead
ers. With George r. Hoar he stood out
against President McKinley's Philippine
policy and voted against ratifying the
treaty with Spain. He had little suavity.
He was brusque in manner. He lacked
the ordinary arts of the politician Yet
industry, assiduity and native force made
him for more than thirty years an i'm
portant figure in Congress and in our
national life.
There are no Hales and Aldriches in
the Senate to-day. And the Senate's
prestige already suffers appreciably from
a lack of that vigorous talent and work.
manlike mastery of the business of leg
lslation which the leaders cf the Aldrich-
Hale period displayed.