Roanoke Rapids herald., 1923-06-08
HALIFAX COUNTY'S GREATEST SON
= DIES AT WILSON MAY 81
Hon. Claude Kitchen, Twenty Three Years Representa-
tive Congress From the Second District Of North Car
olina Laid kest Scotland Neck Friday Afternoon


been taken for treatment
Mr. kitchin suffered a break
down in the fall of 1920, due. it
is generally conceded to the enor-
NOUS strain under which he
labored during the great World
War. when upon his shoulders
rested the task, as Chairman of
the great Ways and Means Com
mittee of Congress. of raising
the funds with which to fight
the war.
He was as much a casualty of
that war as any soldier who bore
arms and was killed and wound
ed on the battlefelds of France.
Since then he has spent most
of his time visiting specialists
and resting a. his home here in
an effort to regain his health but
to no avail.
The country recognized Hon.
Claude Kitchin as great man
and statesman, but the thing
which stamped him most was the
sincere love and esteem in which
he was held by his intimates.
They loved him as a brother and
he them.
Representative Claude Kitchin
was born in Halifax county,
near Scotland Neck, March oath,
1869; graduated from Wake For
est College June 1888, and was
married to Miss Kate Mills No
vember 18th of the same year;
was admitted to the bar Septem-
ber 1890; and has since been en-
gagged in the practice of law at
Scotland Neck.
He was elected to the Fifty
seventh Congress in 1900, taking
his seat in 1901 and has been re-
turned to each successive Con-
-ess.
He was Democratic Majority
eader in the Sixty Fourth and
o,xty-fifth congresses, and Min
ority Leader in the Sixty-seventh
congress.
When internal differences
broke in the Republican ranks in
1910, due to national disgust with
the Payne-Aldrich tariff law, Mr..
Kitchin, fighting shoulder to
shoulder with Camp Clark,
launched a determined attack
against the rulership of Cannon.
which eliminated in his organi-
zation of the House and the elec-
ton of Mr.. Clark as speaker.
From the dramatic days of the
latter '90's, when he. with his
distinguished father. William H.
Kitchin also. at one time a men,
ber of Congress, and his brother,
William Walter Kitchin, also
once a member of Congress for
several terms and later Governor
of North Carolina, threw him
self into the fight to rid North
Carolina of negro domination,
defeating George White. negro
Representative from this district,
until the time of his breakdown
nearly three years ago, his career
has been one strenuous battle
year in and year out. No repres-
entative who has sat on the
Democratic side of the House
has ever been feared as much by
the Republicans, for his ready
wit. accurate knowledge, his un-
answerable logic, and biting sar-
casm,. combined with his strict
integrity and innate honesty
served to put the ablest debater
on the Republican side to route.
Mr. Kitchin was recognized as
the greatest authority on the tar
iff who has ever sat in Congress
and one of his last official acts
was to prepare the minority re-
port on the tariff during the last
session of Congress: even though
he was broken in health.
AS an orator, he had few
equals his speeches time and
aeai' 'ng used as campaign
s by his party. His
..ly was magnetic, his
lg magnificent and his
acter fearless. He had no
,riors and few equals as a
,ter and his name will go
Vim history as statesman
with those of Clay, Cal
\ lid other great statesmen
.,.aJ preceded him.
The funeral services will be
held tomorrow afternoon at 200
o'clock from his late residence,
with DR.. Chas. Anderson, pastor
of the Baptist Church, of which
which he was a member, officiat-
ing, the interment to be in the
family plot of the Baptist Gene
terry. The active pallbearers will
be Messrs. Lewis B. Suiter. Rob.
ert C. Josey. Jr., James G. Shi.
elds. Jr.. S. A. Dunn, C. H
England, L. H. Kitchin. Stuart
Smith and William Leverton, Of
Continued OF. back page)