Evening star., 1927-05-06
Grant Was Nearing Death.

again.
1.-The Democrats, who were in con
| troll of the House, had unseated a good
many Republicans-among others Nc.
Kinley-and one Of the contests still
left undecided was that of James Will
son Of Iowa, familiarly known as
Tama Jim. When the Democrats un-
seated Mckinley they did not know
they were unseating a future Presi.
dent, and the first selection that Presi-
dent made for his cabinet was Tama
jim to be Secretary of Agriculture,
an office which he held under three
Presidents-the longest service any
cabinet officer ever had in our his
tory. But that's not the story.
Both i'm Fighting Mood.
''The report of the committee de-
claring Wilson had not been legally
elected did not come up until Febru-
ary %, four days before, under the
law, Congress was to adjourn. The
issue involved was whether the Demo-
crat who was contesting Wilson's seat
should get it and draw two-year
back salary for doing nothing. There
was really nothing in the fight but
politics, but both sides were in a
mood for a scrap, and the Republicans
determined not only to fight the re-
port and save Tama Jim's seat, but
to filibuster till the end Of the ses-
sion, if necessary. AS only four days
remained and the old easy-going rules
were still in force, they could take
the House by the throat and prevent
any legislation from being passed,
even though they We're in the minor
ity.
"It was the Saturday before adjourn
ment and the inauguration of Grover
Cleveland the first Democratic Presi-
dent since before the War of Seces-
sion. The filibuster started in the good
oId-fashioned way, and all day long
we prevented any business being done
except to call the roll on motions to
adjourn. The House adjourned over
Sunday, and on Monday a bombshell
was thrown into the Democratic
ranks.
ION that day Roger Q. Mills of
Texas. one of their leading members,
offered resolution that the House
should refuse to take any part in the
inaugural ceremonies two days later.
Imagine the rumpus this raised. Here
was a Democrat proposing that the
Democratic House should stay away
from the inauguration of a Demo
cratic President. What had Cleve-
land done to merit such an insult be-
fore he had even become President?
Didn't Like Houses Seats.
mills, always a vigorous speaker.
was furious. 1t turned out that the
President-elect hadn't done anything,
but the committee on arrangements
had assigned seats to the members of
the House at the rear Of the plat
form. This was an affront to the
dignity Of the House, and Mills an
nounced that he would not consent
to sit with the. servants and the boot
blacks while the Senators sat in the
place Of honor. OF course. we agreed
with Mills and resented the insult,
but aside from that we were delighted
at this unexpected recruit to our fill
buster. Thanks to him, precious time
was being used up, which was ex-
actly what we wanted. We agreed
with Mills in speech after speech that
it was a dirty trick. And when
scrapping Democrat proposed that the
Capitol police should be mobilized-
Just what they were to do no one
ever knew-we egged him on like
naughty boys trying to make a pup
fight Finally, the Democrats saw
they were making themselves ridicu-
lous and voted down Mills motion,
but in the meantime a lot of time
had been used up. Now we returned
to the business Of moving to adjourn
and calling the roll each time, so as
to bar any approach to the business
before the House-the unseating of
Tama Jim.
"Tama ,Jim's" Sacrifice.
Late Tuesday night, March 3, the
day before Inauguration and adjourn
ment, Samuel J. Randall, the Demo
cratic floor leader, moved to suspend
the rules and pass the bill giving the
dying Grant the rank of general.
Speaker Carlisle held the motion to
be out Of order. Randall next moved
to displace the election case, but this
also was ruled out. The fight con-
tinued to grow uglier hour after hour,
and on the morning of March 4, when
members should have been preparing
to attend the ceremonies of inducting
new President into office, the cham
ber was filled with as mad lot of
men as I ever saw without calling il
mob. 1t looked like a deadlock un-
til the moment of final adjournment.
About an hour before, legally, that
time was to arrive, Randall again
moved to take up the bill for the relief
of Grant. Bennett of North Carolina,
who had the bill in charge, jokingly
said he would consent to the passage
Of the Grant bill after the election
case had been voted on.
agile as a cat, Tama Jim sprang
to the top Of his desk and began to
wave his long arms in an effort to
secure recognition. When the turmoil
subsided enough for him to be heard,