Evening star., 1939-04-10

having been named to that post by
the Democratic majority early in
his first term in the Upper House.
In the 1896 Democratic landslide
Senator Lewis defeated former Sen
ator Otis F. Glenn by nearly 6O0,-
900 votes, becoming the first Illinois
Senator to win election for two
successive terms since the origin of
the direct primary.
He hung a big question mark
over his future political career in
1888, however, when he announced
he would resign the following year.
Later he amended his remarks to
say he would not ask for renom-
ination.
Opposed Third Term.
Senator Lewis didn't seek the
quiet and safety OF the sidelines
during his second term. When re-
ports started flowing thick and fast
that President Roosevelt was cycling
a third term he publicly declared
any such attempt would destroy
the Democratic party" He also sided
against Gov. Henry Horner in the
the 1898 Illinois primary battle,
announcing his preference for
Michael L. 1goe for the United
States Senate. 1goe lost out.
AS a member of the Foreign Re-
lations Committee of the Senate,
Senator Lewis had shown more con-
cern about international than do
mestic affairs. He devoted much
time and study to the war debt
problem, advancing a plan whereby
he said Great Britain and France
could deduct from their debts to
this country amounts lent the
United States during the Revolu-
tionary and Civil Wars.
Senator Lewis, a lawyer in pri-
vate life, accepted a remunerative
post with the city Of Chicago In
1888 as legal daviser for the munich
pal commission struggling with the
problem Of traction consolidation.
His war experiences embraced the
Spanish American conflict and the
World War. In the former he was
staff colonel, first with Gen. Brook
in Cuba and later with Gen. Fred D.
Grant in Puerto Rico. Sent to
France in 1918 by President Wilson
on missions for the War and Navy
Departments, he became an aide
on the staff Of Gen. George Bell on
the Chateau Thierry front. and was
returning on the naval ship Mount
Vernon when the vessel was tor
pedoed and forced to limp back to
BreSt.
Was on Boundary Board.
His diplomatic work included
membership on a joint high COM
mission on the Alaskan Canadian
boundary which met in London and
to which he was appointed by Presi-
dent Wilson. In 1914 he was an
United States commissioner to Lon
don to execute laws for increasing
safety at sea. In 1923 he repre-
sented American concessionaires in
Turkish oil fields and in 1924 ham
died a $28.0OO,0O0 loan to Mexico.
The following year he handled the
legal details of loan of $100, 900 900
to continental European nations.
Senator Lewis was Virginian by
tragic chance. His mother, Julia
Hamilton Lewis, was hurrying from
the family home in Augusta, Ga, to
Richmond, where Maj. John Cable
Lewis, her husband, was near death
from the after effects Of wounds in
Cured in the Confederate Army.
At Danville son was born and Julia
Lewis died.
Maj. Lewis was an invalid the rest
of his life and the son was reared by
relatives. He was educated at
Houghton College, in Georgia, and
at the University of Virginia and
later studied law in Savannah.
Going to the then Territory of
Washington in 1886, Lewis found
little call for attorneys. He taught
languages two years at the Univer-
sity of Washington, was dropped
when the faculty was pruned and
got job as stevedore on the Seattle
docks, practicing a bit of law on the
side.
For the first six months his only
case was defense of fellow long
shoreman charged with stealing
case of cigars. The fee was 80 cents.
Then he took the case of 20 men in
the city Jail charged with violating
an ordinance. He proved the ordi-
nance unconstitutional, freed the
men with writs of habeas corpus,
and found his services in demand.
Because of his first big case, Sc