Evening star., 1941-04-03
SABBATH, House Dean,
Is Tomorrow, Doesn I
Plan TO Retire Soon
In Congress "a Years, He
Doesn't Agree With Wife
He's 'Eurned Rest
BY CARTER BROOKE JONES.


A man with white hair, stubby
white mustache and kindly, quizzi-
cal smile pushed back his chair in
the House restaurant.
Think you'll retire any time soon,
Mr.. Sabath?" he was asked
"Retire?" He repeated the word
as if it had a strange sound and
looked across the familiar room. The
other tables were vacant; the lunch
hour was long past.
He didn't answer the question for
a while Perhaps that emptied room
reminded the dean of the House that
not one of those who served with
him when he first took his seat
on March 4, 1907, was left in the
chamber upstairs.
II don't know" Adolph j. SABBATH
of Illinois said slowly Then that
infectious grin spread over his face
and lighted his eyes. My wife"
he added, thinks I should retire.
She thinks "a years is long enough,
that I've earned a rest. But-well,
l don't know yet
Perhaps, it was suggested, Mrs.
SABBATH would win him over and
he'd retire at the end of this term.
He'll Be IS Tomorrow.
"On the other hand" he said, "I
may win her over to my way Of
thinking"
Which, it appears, is to serve on
while he is as robust as he looks
today, on the eve of his 18th birth
day.
Plans have been under way to
make something" of his birthday
In the House tomorrow, but he pro-
fessed to know nothing about it.
"Oh, somebody may say something
nice about me-" he conceded. insist
ing that he did not expect to cele-
hrate the event. Friends in Chicago
wanted to give him a party there,
but his wife is not well, and he
begged off.
Theodore Roosevelt was President
when Mr.. SABBATH unpacked his bags
and became Representative under
the autocratic gavel of Speaker
Uncle Joe" Cannon. Actually the
Illinois Democrat helped to break
the absolute power of Uncle Joe"
And Mr.. SABBATH, staying on in Con-
eress through the regimes of seven
Presidents and nine Speakers, saw
himself progress from merely an
other member to the Craftsmanship
of the powerful Rules Committee.
Born in Bohemia.
Mr.. SABBATH was born in old Bo-
hemia. When he left there, at the
age of Is, his country was part OF
the late Austro- Hungarian empire.
He saw it integrated after the World
War in the Czecho-Slovakia republic
and then crushed under Nazi might.
He hopes to live long enough to see
It independent again, which he's
convinced, 1t will be IF Britain
wins"
During the war of 1914-18 Repre-
sentative SABBATH was a member of
the House Foreign Affairs Commit
tee. Toward the close of the con-
f1ict, he opposed a separate peace
with Austria, feeling 1t would
achieve nothing toward the liberty
OF his native land and that of the
other submerged natiOnalitieS.
President Wilson, Mr.. SABBATH re-
called, was inclined toward making
peace with the dual monarchy while
the fight with Germany still ragged.
Twice the Illinois Representative
protested to the President that Ger
many would have the final say and
the word of the Hapsburgs could not
be trusted anyway.
Mr.. SABBATH said he was at the
White House on another matter
when the Presidents secretary,
Joseph P. Tumulty suggested that
the Congressman see the President
a third time, remarking that he
thought Mr. Wilson was about to be
won over.
"I hesitate to intrude my opinion
q third time" Mr.. SABBATH related,
but I did. told President Wilson
that il he would wait, revolution
against the Austrian government
would break out. Well, he waited,
and it did, and the CZecho-Slovak
Republic was created out of rem
nants of the old empire"
Predicted Hitler's Moves.
incidentally Mr.. SABBATH, several
years ago. predicted that Hitler, then
avowing his innocence of territorial
designs, would overrun Czecho-
S,,x,. e:$se