Evening star., 1936-03-14

almost crushed under the RESPONSE
bility."
The lanky Speakers piercing eyes
glow under his beetle brows as he
describes the tumultuous legislative
prologue to war.
Bryns of Tennessee had been a
Congressman eight years April 3. 1917,
when the House convened at 10 am.
to make its decision.
The Senate had adopted the war
resolution the day before, 81 to 6, and
We had hopes OF action by in the
afternoon. But feeling ran so high
that it was nearly dawn, at 3:l5
O'Clock the next morning, when the
vote was taken and the resolution
carried, 373 to So"
N HIS slow, rich distinct Tennessee
drawl the Speaker tells a thrilling
story of those anxious 18 hours:
Chairman Flood of the Foreign
Affairs Committee fired the first shot
with stirring plea for American en-
trance into the conflict in order to
save our country's honor and dignity
from the shameless treatment Ger
many was heaping upon US.
The chamber was in an uproar.
Speaker Champ Clark pounded his
gavel, but to no avail. While most of
the members were still loudly ap-
plauding Floods appeal for war,
Henry Allen Cooper of Wisconsin,
ranking Republican member of the
Foreign Affairs Committee, began a
vigorous demand for peace. The emo
tions Of all the members were un-
leashed There hadn't been anything
like it since reconstruction days.
THE waters calmed down bit
when Claude Kitchin of North Caro-
lima, the majority floor leader, who
was much respected. joined with Mr..
Cooper and confessed his inability to
support the war measure.
But feelings flared up again soon,
and Tom Hef1in almost came to blows
with Representative Burnett, his fellow
Alabaman. after Burnett beseeched
the House to kill the resolution.
Every member screamed for time
to talk. The hubbub rocked the
chamber.
"At last came the most thrilling
moment of those long, tense hours.
The clerk began to call the roll. The
whole House was on edge when he read
the name of Mrs. Jeannette Rankin of
Montana, first woman elected to Con-
gress. The exhausted members were
deeply interested in what a woman
would do in the face of such a grave
question. They watched her intently.
She was white faced and nervous and
silent, sitting at the aisle in the third
row. She answered nothing when her
name was read.
"A second time the clerk called,
Mrs. Rankin
"Still she did not reply.
More loudly, once more, Mrs. Ran
kim
"She stood up and addressed the
chair. Her voice was strained and
her eyes were filled with tears. She
said:
"Mr. Speaker, cannot bring my
self to vote for war;
Slowly she sat down. 1t was the
most gripping single scene in Congress
greatest day."
TOE BYRNS cast his vote for war 13
years after he attempted unsuc-
cessfully to retire from politics. He
had made an enviable record in the
Tennessee Legislature. when he de-
cided early in the century to quit pub
lie life.
A friendly politician, however,
thwarted this wish by having him
named a presidential elector in 1904.
Byrns protested; the friend insisted.
The brainy young lawyer gave in. Joe
delivered one of Tennessee's vain IL
votes for Alton B. Parker, Democratic
nominee buried under the Teddy
Roosevelt landslide. He was now in
politics for good. Five years later the
Hermitage district, which gave the
Nation Andrew Jackson, sent Joe
Byrns to the House, where he reigns
today as its jovial head man.
When Byrns arrived in Congress