Evening star., 1923-12-02
Capital Sidelights
BY WILL p. KENNEDY


whom much In the way of sensible
business legislation is expected il
Representative Arthur B. Williams
of Michigan, who was given his real
start in bug business by the mar
whom he had bested in big lawsuit
When Williams was struggling
young lawyer he had an important
case against c. w. Post, head of the
Postum Cereal Company, doing bust
ness of upwards of s20,0o0,00o
year. which was fought out in the
courts for several years.
Mr.. Post was so impressed with the
able manner in which Mr.. Williams
successfully pressed the suit against
him that when his attorney died he
hired Williams, who represented the
Post interests for seven years before
he gave up general practice. in 1911
For the last twelve years Mr.. Will
to the Postum Cereal business. al
though he and Mr.. Post differed Wig
orously on many public questions.
After Mr.. Posts death, Mr.. vii.
liams was vice president and general
counsel until he quit to run for Con
gress in the recent special election
and had an important part in the con-
duct of the entire business under q
committee form Of management.
In his wide business experience he
touched practically every phase of
life in way that must be helpful In
his congressional work. For example
as one of the executors of the Post es-
tate, there came under his admins
tration 235 900 acres of land in Texas
onized by having 1t surveyed. fences
and cross fences built, wells sunk,
houses and barns erected windmills
installed, roads and reservoirs Cor
tanks) built - making a complete
outfit for the settlers. More than
1000 families were enabled to buy
these small farms, both land and i'm
provements, on extremely easy terms.
-S2 an acre down and s1.75 per acre
per year, and at only per cent
interest. So while he is not farmer
himself. he has in this way become
rather intimate with the condition
of farmers.
With the soldiers bonus legislation
coming up again before Congress
Representative Allen T. Treadway of
Massachusetts, a very active member
of the ways and means committee
which must find the funds-has taken
an unusual If not unique method OF
finding out just where his constitu-
ents stand on this question and how
he should vote to satisfy the wishes
of the ma jority. He sent out ques-
tionnaire, with return post cards, to
approximately 10000 registered voters
in his district in western Massachu-
setts.
Representative r. Walton Moore OF
Virginia, nearest neighbor of any
congressman to the National Capital
who delivered an address at the Mon
roe centennial celebration at vii.
liam and Mary College yesterday, al
though not a graduate OF the college
holds a very distinguished position
among the alumni. On June ] he re-
ceived the degree of LII. D., being the
last man on whom the degree has
been conferred, the first man to re-
ceive ii having been Thomas Jeffer.
son-and II has not been very nu-
merously conferred. At the time
Congress containing the famous Mon
roe doctrine he had a wonderfully
beautiful estate in Loudoun county
in Representative Moore's district.
+ + *
III " dSHlue loIl SiClc Gam mas
library, which is the only one in the
United States, where a complete set
Of printed patents and trade marks
Of all foreign countries is gathered
This Is in the patent office. which also
conducts the largest and most profit
able +10-cent store in the country
where the stock of copies Of patents
sold for 10 cents each has a sales
value of s5.ooO,ooo.
The collection Of patents and trade
marks is unique. In addition to about
$4,000 volumes Of scientific and tech.
nical books, etc, the library contain:
3.500,000 foreign patents. 2.1O0,0 600 oi
which are bound in $4,000 volumes
However, there are in the library
about 100000 unbound English
French, Italian, Japanese, Swedish
and other foreign patents. including
seven years of German and seyera
years Of Austrian issues.
This library is freQuented by Wis.
itors from all parts of the country
some of whom spend weeks in max
ing their Investigations.
y x + r
Before coming to Congress foul
years ago Representative Edwin L
Davis Of Tennessee was circuit judge
presiding for eight years in nine
counties. Three of his courts wer.
on top of Cumberland mountains. and
Of course, he had ample ,opportunit.
to observe at close range the pic
turesque Tennessee mountaineers.
One of these courts was in Tracy
City, were resided an unique char
acter named Sam Henley, who had
considerable means and was con-
siderably mean when 'fn his cups
While Judge Davis was in the thick
Of q murder trial with the courtroom
packed, this Henley raised a dis.
turbance at the clerks desk about
some fellows fine. Judge Davi.
raped sharply on his desk and wher
Henley looked up at him the judge
rected the attorneys to proceed
Henley soon disturbed the cour
again by loud talking. whereupor
Judge Davis fined him $40 for con
tempt of court. Henley reared back
ran his hand in his pocket and taunt'
it." To which the judge responded
"since you have SO much money
| just pay the clerk s25."
Henley advanced toward the judge
In a threatening manner and NUT
tering. The Judge saw plainly theI
that he was drunk and had the
sheriff lock him up in jail until h'
could sober up. On the way to- the
lookup Henley endeavored to carve
the sheriff with a long knife.
That same afternoon the assistan
attorney general brought before
Judge Davis a -1arky. cadaverou
looking niountaineer named Green
| lee. The attorney said Greenlee knew
some important facts about a cas-
under Investigation and had beer
summoned before the grand jury bu
| refused to answer questions. Judg,
Davis gave Greenlee a lecture on hi
duty and gave him his choice be
| tween answering the questions o
, the grand jury or going to jail unit
| he did, and Greenlee chose to e.