New-York tribune., 1921-03-01
To the Editor of The Tribune.

q tne EQltor OF Inc tribune.
Sir: "Well done, thou good and faith
full servant" expresses concisey the
nationwide feeling of gratitude toward
distinguished statesman and public
servant who retires to private life this
week after a remarkable career unpar-
alleled In American political annals, ex-
tending over more than thirty years.
This sketch is written by former Ore
gonian, who has personally known the
Senator since 1892. At one time it was
his privilege to reside as nearby
neighbor in Portland.
Senator George Earle Chamberlain by
birth and breeding is Mississippian,
by preference and adoption an Oregon
ian, and by common consent and uni
versal approval Of friends and admirers,
whose name is legion, a 100 per cent
American. Always going before his
state constituency as a Democrat in the
most consistently Republican state in
the Union (Oregon was the only state
west of the Rockies to vote for Governor
Hughes in 1916). he has filled the highest
offices Oregon could offer. Success fol-
lowed success with him until 1920, which
was admittedly an exceptional year.
Any ordinary landslide Chamberlain's s
personal popularity would have over
come, but what happened last fall was
something more stupendous--an ava
lanche, against which any human agency
was as naught.
Appointed first by Governor Pennoyer
in 1891, after service in the Legislature,
to fill an unexpired term in the Office of
Attorney General, he subsequently was
elected by the people to the same place
political feat considered truly phe-
nomenal at that time. Removing to the
metropolis (Multnomah County,, Re-
publican stronghold, in less than three
years, after practicing law in the mean
time, he was elected District Attorney
In 1902 he went before the people for
Governor. Elected and reelected, we
find him in 1908 the popular choice of the
masses for the United States Senate.
This was before the adoption of the
seventeenth constitutional amendment,
and the fact was patent to any political
observer that the State Legislature, as
it had been for years, would continue
largely Republican. But progressive
Oregon had referendum law for pro-
posed legislation, though obviously it
didn't extend to the selection of Sena-
tors. Governor Chamberlain arranged a
little solemn referendum of his own at
the primaries. He took his cause direct
to the people. The voters chose a
strongly Republican Legislature, as dis
counted, but majority of the newly
elected members were pledged to send
George Chamberlain to the Senate. The
novel political situation created national
widespread interest and comment. The
press discussed it, soma asserted there
was nothing binding upon a Republican
Legislature to elect a Democrat as Sena-
tor, that the expression of choice on the
part of the electorate was merely ad-
visory, etc. But there was moral in
f1uence at work, the mandate of the
people of Oregon as indorsed by the
farmer folk, the people of the country
side, the toler in the mills and the
merchant in his store, which the Legisla-
ture did not ignore. First elected in
1908, his second term in the Senate,
which ends on March 4, marks the COM
pletion of twelve years of faithful and
rarely equaled public service-service
and endeavor which extended Ear beyond
the interests of Oregon.
Space will permit but brief reference