New-York tribune., 1918-06-06
Claude Kitchin
By Ralph Block
w WASHINGTON, June 5-A statesman
wv is never a thing apart, although
IT. ia coro+;rnoo +bo focb;o,, - ~

"a ! ~AOAAAA>N " O4S, JuH0 C--A Statesman
wv is never thing apart, although
it is sometimes the fashion to so
regard him. He may have been farm
er, or a banker, or merchant, or
clerk, or an attorney, or professor, with
the inevitable sentimentalities of all spe-
cia classes. And if he was not any of these.
safe in his little lane of profession, at least
he had youth once to make him human, with
an entire ignorance Of the machineries he
later comes to believe are so valuable
There are always beginnings-even for
statesmen. Who of us can escape them?
Claude Kitchin was lawyer. 1t has had
its say i'm making HMM making the
Claude Kitchin who starts the revenue
tables rolling on their way through Con-
gress. 1t isn't merely that he was a lawyer
No. He was a lawyer in small town, where
dlalectlc in argument is a thing not taught
in the academies. The academies would
have made him smooth and formal; and
he is not smooth and formal They would
have made him accurate, instead of nlaus
lblc impressively exact instead of mapnetic
and interesting, clipped to the pattern in
stead of overlooking it, careless of it and
sc6rnful Of its limitations
After all, there are degrees of statesman
ship.
He came to Congress from North Carolina
seventeen years ago. There are Congress-
men and leaders Of congressman He was
in the field until 1915, when Oscar Under
wood retired from the head of the Wavs
and Means Committee of the House and the
ranking member Of the committee had to
take his place. The ranking member was
kltchln. The Fates choose strange instru-
ments sometimes Or, perhaps, it is onlv
that implacable master of legislatures-tha
seniority rule. There was rumbling in the
sky and America was looking fearfullv at
Europe, and Kitchin, the new majority
leader in the House, talked Of preparation
Tor war as "the hysteria of the moment ~
tie looks like choleric man. He is full
OF humors, both genial and testy. He has
heavy look about the mouth, q mouth that
can set straight as we'll as open generously
TO curve and escape by soft infections the
rectitude of vowel sounds. His face is
rounding, with dark, waving hair set close
like mat to his head. His eyes are hcavv-
hdded, for various purposes; for passion or
to drop IN sly humor. And for the law of
him, the inescapable sign there is the nose
1t begins insignifcantly at the forehead and
comes up IN the air triumphantly at full
strength at the end. 1t is an adventurous
nose, daring, unrespecting, little mperti-
nent. All together it is a shrewd faco
salted literally with conviction as vol ~.
sympathy and fun. There is no iron about
1t, nothing cast. When he talks it moves
amazingly; has dynamic action all its
own '''
But he can be stubborn Obstinacv has
run like dark thread through the pattern
OF his action since he became chairman Of
'le most powerful committee in the House
OF Representatives. He was stoutlv against
a great programme of armament smoke of
the terms of the programme as "extravaoon+
and revolutionary IDEAS" He was against
the Administration shipping bill, though he
ala not extend himself against it, And. still
reluctant to raise by legislation the preatee+
sum any nation had raised for war et ono
time, though it was the very function Of his
place to undertake it, he grew ouernlouo
when he talked Of it. How would the monev
be raised?
"The Lord only knows" answered Kitch;n
and am sure that neither the Admins,
tratlon. nor the Ways and Means Commit
tee, nor Congress knows"
Though it was true, they could 90 and
find out "''o
he remains haunted by the distemner ~
his first opposition to armament. It viii nv
be shaken off. He does not want to stav
In Washington to draft revenue bill this
summer. And, though in the nature Of th,nes
he will stay, after the President bas h;d
Congress to stay, his reluctance remains
with him.
The President was misled by the publish.
ers, he tells the House; the publishers who
are waiting around the corner to have tha
postal zone law repealed.
He is too honest for the complexities ~
craftsmanship. He sees his work ahead and
he will not shirk it, '''N
But he will not let any one rest under tbe
delusion that he goes to it gladly.
Still, it may be only the North Carolina
temperament