The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1933-03-02
SENATOR WALSH
DIES SUDDENLY
fContinued from PAGE one,

4
ed it was almost lost sight of.
Painstaking examination of vast
volumes of the record had con-
WINGED Senator Walsh, however.
that the transaction had not been
wholly in the interest. of the gov
eminent. With this conviction he
kept hammefing away until Do
heny furnished his sensational
testimony that at the time of his
! negotiations with Fall for the
lease to the California reserve he
had loaned the then interior sec
rotary 100000, sending the
money to Washington in little
black satchel' transported by. his
|. son. This testimony loosed the
flood gates and as disclosure fol-
lowed disclosure Senator Walsh
found himself one of the most
talked-of men in the country.
Favored McAdoo
In the closing days of the in
quiry, many of the friends of the
senator urged him to become a
candidate for the Democratic
presidential nomination, but he
adhered to his original plan to
support William G. McAdoo and
| in a public announcement argued
that the bringing of McAdoo's
name into the oil inquiry as one
of the several former cabinet Of
ticers employed by Doheny at enc
time or another as counsel had IN
no way impaired his availability
as a presidential candidate.
Fate had it that Senator Walsh
should become chairman of the
Madison Square Garden convcn-
ton. a sort of arbiter in the his
tory-making struggle between Nc
Adoo and Alfred E. Smith, the
New York governor, and also in
the religious and racial row which
was bound up in the controversy
over a proposed platform plank
denouncing the Ku Klux Khan.
Like Governor Smith, whom he re-
fused to support. the senator was
Catholic and so no friend of the
Khan; but he told the leaders of
the warning factions that as pre-
siding officer he could show no
favor as to either candidates or
policies.
Several times during those three
teeming weeks the convention was
on the point of riot, and the sem
Rtor smashed several gavels in his
efforts, frequently vain. to MAIN
tain some semblance of order.
Many times his own fighting Irish
blood was aroused and once or
twice he threatened to clear the
galleries of boisterous spectators
who made the difficult work of
the convention doubly hard.
Set Up Cry For Walsh
When McAdoo and Smith final
" were eliminated and the conven-
ton in the late afternoon OF a
sweltering July day had nominal
ed John w. Davis, the delegates
set up a cry for Walsh for vice.
president, and they would have
stampeded themselves into nom
mating him forthwith had he not
declareG.the convention adjourn
ed.
| Later, in formally notifying
John w. Davis of his selection as
the party standard bearer, Sena-
tor Walsh brought some criticism
upon himself By adyertine in ms
address to MIR. Davis former CON
nections as counsel for "Wall
| Street interests" This was a sub
ject which Mr.. Davis himself had
! viewed as having been closed by
his pre-cunventton statement.
Senator Walsh's first national
political service was as a delegate
/ 10 the Democratic national CON-
vention in 1905. lie represented
his state also in the Baltimore and
st. Louis conventions which NOM
mated Woodrow Wilson and at
, the San Francisco eogention in
1920. He married Miss Elinof C..
/ McClements. Of Chicago. in 1889.
She died in 1917. They had one
daughter, who became Mrs. r. G.
Gudger. wife Of Commander Gad-
ger, L. s. n.