Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-03-06
Many of His Colleagues Had
Not Been Born When Old
est and Most Picturesque
Character Entered House
Atlanta Journal News Bureau,
408 Evans Building.
BY THEODORE TILLER

40S Evans Building.
BY THEODORE TILLER
WASHINGTON, March They
are packing up for Danville. The
midnight train leaves soon for IL
linois.
The cedar chests and file cases
used in the yesteryear, the. scrap
books with the newspaper stories
and cartoons of other days, the let
ters written in Lincoln's time, pub
lished speeches of many a historic
debate, routine correspondence that
came in only last week-an are
starting toward the west and the
sunset.
"Uncle Joe" Cannon is going back
home.
The packers hustle about in his
two little offices just off the cham
Der of the house of representatives,
wherein Uncle Joe" has served
longer than any other man. Be
cause of his years and .unprece-
dented service, Mr.. Cannon for
sometime has occupied rooms ada
cent to the chamber and not in the
distant house office building.
Joseph Quincy Cannon came to
the house fifty years ago. With the
exception of two terms he has been
here since. Twice he was overcome
by Democratic landsIides, but he
came back two years later. Today
he quite voluntarily after forty-six
years of actual service, including
eight years as speaker
Nearest Rival
Senator Justin Smith Morrill,, of
Vermont, who died a quarter of
century ago, nearest approached Mr..
Cannon in length of service. Com
bining his time in house and senate,
Senator Morrill, rounded out 43 years,
g months and 25 days.
On December 20, 1920, "Uncle
joe beat that record by one day and
the house held a great celebration.
It is a tragic fact only about two
years later that three of the, com
parative veterans in service who par
ticipated in the love feast, and were
mentioned in the speech of "Uncle
joe that day, are now gone. They
are Champ Clark, James r. Mann,
of Illinois, and John A. Moon, of
Tennessee.
That the, younger generation may
grasp something Of the significance
of the record-breaking service of Mr..
Cannon, let's trace the flight of time,
paragraph by paragraph, and almost
each brief fact is worth a story in
itself:
OF the 81 senators, representa-
tives and delegates who were in con-
Whon GGTTnoIn
a half century ago only two are
left-Mr. Cannon and General Isaac
Sherwood, of Ohio, the latter one
year older than the Illinois states
man. General Sherwood was out
OF the house thirty-four years, but
will be member Of the next, sixty
eighth congress.
When Cannon came to congress
James G. Blaine, the "Plumed
Knight" was speaker Of the house.
Garfield was a member of the Ohio
delegation. On the floor were Hoar,
of Massachusetts; Frye and Hale, Of
Maine, Alexander III. Stephens. of
Georgia; Sunset" Cox, Of Ohio: Ben
Butler, of, Massachusetts,, and Roger
@. Mills, of Texas.
At the senate end were CamNfon,
pioneer political boss of Pennsyl-
vania; Roscoe Conklin, Henry G.
Davis, of West Virginia.; John J. In
gals, OF Kansas (he wrote "Oppor-
tunity''); Oliver P Morton, of Indi.
ana; John Sherman and Allen G.
Thurman, of Ohio; Freylinghuysen
and Bayard, of New Jersey, whose
descendants are the Senators Ere
Hnghuysen and Bayard Of today.
Eleven States have been admitted
to the Union since Joseph G. Cannon
took the oath of office.
Secuted AirpIane Idea
Long before the world heard of
the Wright brothers and their air.
plane, Mr.. Cannon was chairman OF
the house committee on appropria-
lions. There came before the com.
mittee Professor Langley, Of the
Smithsonian institution, who asked
a $4,000 appropriation to expert.
ment in flying.
Great heavens" exclaimed Mr..
Cannon, "a flying. machine to ride
up in the air; whoever. heard of such
thing?"
Then Langley went ahead and
pleaded that a bird was heavier than
the air and could fly and he was
confident man could fly like a bird.
Inc idea seemed preposterous to
Cannon and other committee mem.
bers, but Langley pleaded so, and
the amount asked was small thew let
him have it.
And now" says Mr.. Cannon, "the
sky is filled with airplanes and hu.
man HERS and they are implements
poth or commerce and war;
AS the late Speaker Champ Clark
said in one of his tributes to Repre-.
sentative Cannon:
When he was born at Guilford
courthouse, North Carolina, in 1886.
there were no railroad, no telegraphs
or telephones, no sewing machines.
Tying machines, repeating rifles and
thousand other things deemed nee
essary to our modern civilization"
Uncle Joe" himself recounts that
since that day his folks left .Guilford
courthouse and started westward,
saying goodbye civilization" as they
began their trek to Illinois, he has
seen come the reaper and the NOW
err the gang pillow and the whole
revolution in agriculture, the tele-
graph, telephone and now the ra-
dio, the electric railroad, the sub
marine and the airplane, the type
writer and the modern printing
press.
One of the most effective speeches
ever made in the house was that of
Mr.. Cannon in 1916, when he de-