Evening star., 1934-08-20

Henry T. Rainey reached the
powerful post of Speaker of the Ma
tional House of Representatives after
services in IA Congresses. He was
white haired veteran of u when he
was handed the gavel at the start
of his fifteenth term in March, 1888.
He started his congressional service
in 1908 and thereafter kept the
twentieth Illinois district in the
Democratic column except in the
Sixty-seventh Congress, when he was
victim of the Harding Republican
landslide of November, 1920.
AS Speaker he was faced at the
outset with the extraordinary series
of legislative acts which marked the
opening months of the Franklin D.
Roosevelt administration. The ma
tional bank holiday, return of beer,
the amendment to abolish the eigh-
teenth amendment. the granting of
powers to the President to slash
Government expenditures, the aban-
donment of the gold standard cur
rency imitation. farm relief and
huge program of public works to
relieve unemployment, came in rapid
succession.
So expeditiously did the National
Legislature push through the acts
connected with these developments
that some of the Representatives be-
gan to murmur about rubber stamp
legislation" but Rainey gently, and
yet firmly kept them in line.
Towering Figure.
He was big man physically.
Towering over most of his colleagues,
his wide shoulders were topped by a
neck like that of circus strong man
and a massive head, crowned with a
name of silvery hair that stuck out
in all directions from his silk hat on
formal occasions. His square jaws
held a big black pipe rigidly, but
when he spoke his tones were soft
and amiable.
where he was born on August 20,
1860, and went to Amherst College
for his scholastic training. He was
graduated there with the degree of
A. B. in 1888, took a two-year law
course in Chicago, then went back to
Massachusetts, for postgraduate work
which yielded him an A. M. degree
from Amherst in 1886
r After his college days ended he
vert back to Illinois, was admitted
to the bar and in June, 1889, married
Ella Mcbride of Harvard, Nebr. For
II years he maintained a practice in
Carrollton, but after politics claimed
him he gave up his profession, CEN
tering his activities outside his con-
gressional duties on building up his
farm. On it he had registered Hol-
stein cattle, pedigreed dogs, herd of
deer and complete electrical equip
ment.
At Washington he was known as a
Democratic wheel horse, always pull
ing his full share of the party load
in the lean years of Republican domi-
nation. His friends described him as
always patient, tolerant and careful.
Menace of Machine.
One of the political notes which he
sounded frequently in his later years
was protection for the worker from
what he termed the menace" of the
machine. Several years before tech-
nocracy flashed across the economic
horizon he warned of what he con-
Sidered impending dangers in the
constant supplanting of hands by me-
chanical devices.
He said that the number of unern-
ployed or occasional workers would
increase sharply if industrialists con-
tinued to substitute machines for men
that the aggregate buying power OF
wage earners would be cut and that
the result might be disaster to- our
whole economic and social structure. >
Shorter work days and fewer work
days he considered insufficient to meet
this situation. Instead he urged en-
ployers to find means of spreading
the savings resultant from machine
methods among q Greater number oi
people.