The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-04-15
SENATOR STONE
DIES; OPPOSED
war WITH HUNS
Missourian Spent Forty-five
years in Active Political
Life.
(By Associated Press)

Wy Associated PreSs)
WASHINGTON. d. c., April 10
senator William Joel Stone of Mis-
souri,, chairman of the senate foreign
relations committee and for many
years prominent among Democratic
leaders. died here yesterday after
stroke of paralysis suffered last We'd
nesday.
Senator Stone was in public life for.
ty-five years and during that long peri
Cd probably engaged in as many polit-
ical contests as any man OF his time,
ranging all the way from controvers-
les over county offices to the broadcast
national issues.
Opposed War Entry.
At the entry of the United States
INTO the war, Senator Stone performed
the trying feat OF antagonizing his
own party administration and then re-
aligning himself with it in a generally
satisfactory manner. 1t was in con-
nection with the bill proposing the
arming of American merchant ships
that he took sharp issue with Presi-
dent Wilson. He stood with the dozen
senator's whose opposition caused the
failure of that measure at the close of
the sixty-fourth congress, and brought
down the denunciation of the presi-
dent upon "the willful twelve"
His opposition to the declaration of
war on Germany also was pronounced,
and he declined to take charge of the
war resolution, as would have been ex-
pected of him as chairman Of the COM
mittee on foreign relations. He did
not seek. however, to place obstacles
In the way of consideration and
transferred the leadership to Senator
Hitchcock
Known as "Gum Shoe Bill"
He believed that American partici-
patton should be avoided if possible.
but when the die was cast for war; he
changed overnight. He took his place
with the supporters of war measures
and consistently maintained that at
titude He held it incumbent upon
him to o.ard with his country regard
less of his own views.
Although he had served in the house
Of representatives and had been COVER
nor of his state, Senator Stone first
attracted national attention in con-
nection with Mr.. Bryans first CAM
paign for the presidency in 1896. He
became the Missouri member of the
national Democratic committee and
soon took front rank among the Bryan
managers, justifying a reputation for
shrewdness and foresightedness he al
ready had gained in Missouri.
In national as well as in state poll
tics he worked quietly. seeking for If
fects. To this quality he owed the
ssobriquet of Gum Shoe Bill and his
friends say that he never sought to
avoid the use of that name for himself.
u Long Political Career.
Kentuckian by nativity. born May
I. 1S4S, Senator Stone removed to Mis-
souri,, where he graduated from the
Missouri university and was admitted
to the bar in 1869. He Immediately
began to manifest an interest in polit-
ical affairs and in 1873 was prescott
ing attorney of Vernon county.
He went to congress as a represent
alive in the forty-ninth congress and
was reelected to the fifftieth and fifty
first congress, serving from 1885 to
1891.
From 1898 to 1897 he was governor
of Missouri. On the death of George
G.. Vest he was elected to the senate
in 1908. and was reelected in 1909
and 1915.
He was married in 1874 and had
three children.
Burial in Nevada, Mo.
At the bedside at the time of his
death were his wife and three chill
dren Kimbrough Stone, United
States Circuit Judge of the Eighth APP
pellate Division with headquarters at
Kansas City; Mrs. John W. Padkin-
son, st. Louis, Mo, and Miss Mabel
Stone; niece, Miss Margaret Win
ston, of st. Louis, and his physician.
DR.. William NJ. Sprigg, of Washington.
Funeral services were held at the
Washington residence this afternoon
at 4 o'clock and were conducted by
the Chaplin of the Senate. Rev Forest
j. Prettiman. At 6 p. m. the body
will be taken to st. Louis, where it
will arrive Tuesday afternoon, and
then will be taken to jefferson City.
Senator Stones body will lie in state
in the corridor of the Missouri State
Capitol Wednesday afternoon, and
will be carried that afternoon to Ne
vada, Mo-, where the funeral will take
place Thursday under the auspices of
the Nevada Masonic lodge.
Nevada was selected as the place of
burial because it was to that place
Senator Stone and his parents went
from Kentucky. He lived there until
he became Governor of Missouri, and
his father and mother are buried
there.
The family will accompany the
body as well as Senator Reed and the
entire Missouri delegation in the
House, with the possible exception of
Speaker Clark The rules If the
House require that the Speaker must
not be absent from the House more
than one day without an adjournment