Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-12
HANNA'S IDEA OF WOMEN
IN POLITICS is POWDERED
Entry of His Daughter Into Senate Race
Brings Speculation of Reaction
on Present-Day Events.

French of Idaho, and Charles r. Crisp
Of Georgia, and Edward W. Pou Of
North Carolina, William H. Stafford OF
Wisconsin, James A. Hughes of West
Virginia, Henry st. George Tucker Of
Virginia. There are scores of men In
Washington, not yet old, who called
Hanna Uncle Mark" and at the corned
beef breakfasts that were the pride of
him and of his colored cook.
Flying Developed Since His Time.
Yet how much would be novel-more
than novel - utterly astonishing - to
Mark Hanna, returning as Rip Van
Wrinkle, after being IS years gone. The
atrplane. Then the Wright brothers
had made their first flight about six
weeks before Hanna died, but we can
be sure Hanna did not see it and most
emphatically would not have believed It
II told; he would not have believed that
man could fly upon any evidence what
ever, except actual sight of 1t with his
own eyes. That was the practically
universal attitude about human flight
nobody believed it till he saw it.
Hanna and his daughter would have
a good deal to say about the airplane
and about the conquest of many dis
eaSes-Hanna's death was caused by
typhoid fever. a disease quite common
In that day, but now largely under con-
CrOl OF human mCell1gence.
The income tax, the direct primary.
women smoking, ragtime, motion pic
lures, jazz, tunnels under the Hudson
River, electric refrigerators, the League
OF Nations, prohibition, the World Court
all these would be novel to Hanna,
and some he would disapprove
I have implied that the conversation
OF father and daughter would begin
about her ambition for the Senate.
That Is not certain. He was a forth
right man, Hanna, and it was his way
And 1t may be his interest would first
have dwelt on some details of his
daughters appearance. A woman wear
ing her hair cut short might have
seemed to him clue. In his day a
Short haired woman" had a concrete
implication. It was often coupled with
long haired men"-and both were re-
garded as "cranks," as queer" His
daughter, wearing her hair cut short.
might have saddened him with the
warning that he had a crank to deal
with-a woman with short hair would
have been In 1904 just the sort to get
into her head the preposterous notion
that she could run for the Senate
At some point in the conversation
Hanna almost certainly would take an
uneasy look at the lower hem of his
daughters dress, located as all women's
dresses now are, in the neighbcrhood of
the knee. With some embarrassment. but
1mpelled by sense of paternal duty.
Hanna would say: "Of course, Ruth,
it's all right with me-it's all right
when there's nobody present but your
father-but I hope you don't wear that
dress in the street, If you do, you'll
never get to the Senate and you won't
deserve to- ~ $3.50
Hanna in his day was by no means
backward in his generation. On the
contrary. he was intellectually liberal
"a rather courageous liberal, but the
streets full of women with dresses end
ing at the knee would have been too
much for him. It Is safe to doubt
whether he would have allowed his
daughter, even at the age of 10 or IL,
to ride her pony astride.
Had World Of Common Sense.
One wonders what Hanna would
make of it all. His Judgment about the
changes and innovations would be USE
ful for America to have, at time when
most OF us have no clear conclusions
as to whether all of the progress has
really been progress, whether some of
1t may have been mere motion. Uncle
Mark" had world Of common sense
common sense was almost the whole,
III etsAAAAy LAOs 0ASSCot Vi tklC Qud1lClCS
that made him strong in politics and
strong in every manifestation of his
personality He was the most powerful
individual figure in the Senate of his
time, or. perhaps since, and his power
was due as much to his personality as
to the organization he created and con-
trolled. He had regard for facts and
realities and honest convictions Of any
KIND and ne had Scorn for hypocrisy
indirection and shallowness-all shams
or tricks he was able to recognize at
sight and gruffly he tossed them out
OF the window, without any feigned
politeness toward the persons who pro-
posed them.
He was big man In his generation
and In history he tends to grow. More
and more recent books on American
history emphasize him and his infiu-
ence, and give increasing space to him.
Within the last year new book about
him has appeared, from the pen of
Thomas Beer.
If Hanna's daughter wins her fight
in Illinois she will be the first woman
elected to the Senate-though not quite
the first to sit in It: a gentle old lady
from Georgia was appointed from that
State 0 few years ago as a mark Of
honor, to I'LL vacancy of q few days
duration.
Mrs. Mccormick, If she wins, will
have an additional and unique distinc-
tion-in that she will be the FIRST Sena-
tor to have had both father and o
husband in that body. Even outside
the Senate. there are very few women
who have been both the daughter of q
Senator and. the wife of one.
There are two elderly ladies living
and not more than two, I think, who
have been the daughter of a Senator.
the wife of Senator and the mother
Of one. One Is Mrs. Eugene Hale,
daughter Of q Civil War Senator named
Chandler, widow of Senator Hale Of
Maine and mother of q present Senator
from Maine, Fred Hale. The other Is
Mrs. Stephen 3. Elkins, daughter Of
Henry Gassaway Davis, once Senator
from West Virginia, widow of Stephen
B. Elkins of West Virginia, who sat in
the Senate with Hanna, and mother Of
a recent West Virginia Senator, Davis
ElklnS. 90 ~