Evening star., 1941-02-08
Col. Clarence Owens
Noted International
Lawyer, Dies Of Flu
Wus Instrumental in
Obtaining Naval Base
At Guantanamo Boy

Col. Clarence Julian Owens, SO,
noted attorney in international law
who was instrumental in obtaining
for the United States its first Car
ibbean naval base at Guantanamo
Bay, died yesterday at his home,
2116 Kalorama road NV. He had
been i'll for two weeks with inf1u-
enza and resulting heart complica-
tions.
Since 1904 the Isle of Pines Treaty,
which was to give this country use
of Guantanamo Bay on the Isle of
Pines. of Cuba, had gathered dust
in Senate files. Finally. 20 years
after the treaty had first been
signed, Col. Owens together with
William Jennings Bryan and Charles
A. Douglas, late Washington attor-
rey. went to Cuba to straighten out
legal tangles which had kept the
treaty dormant.
Their efforts were credited with
obtaining the final ratification of the
treaty in 1925 and the beginning of
our first efforts to protect America
by way Of the Caribbean.
Was Head of Commercial Congress.
For the past 30 years Col. Owens
was president of the Southern Com
mercial Congress, acting in behalf
of the industrial and agricultural
interests of l6 Southern States. He
made extensive surveys during this
period both inside and outside Of the
United States.
Native of Augusta, Ga. Col. Owens
attended South Carolina Institute
now Bailey Military Institute),
Cornell University and Columbian
University (now George Washington
University, taking his master of
arts degree from the latter in 1900
He was commandant of cadets and
a professor of English from 1858,
and president for the succeeding
years of Orangeburg College, in
South Carolina. Leaving there in
1901 he was president OF Sumter
Military Academy, in South Carolina,
Admission College, in Alabama. and
the Southeast Alabama Agricultural
College
In 1918 President Wilson appointed
him chairman of a commission to
study rural credits in l8 foreign
countries. His report led to the
enactment of the Federal Farm
Loan Act after the World War;.
Served as Panama Adviser.
In 1919 he became an adviser
to President Porras of Panama and
toured all the provinces of that
republic in preparing a report on
the agricultural situation there.
Col. Owens was decorated by the
King of Italy in 1922 with the
Cavaliere Official. Crown of Italy.
He was member of the bar of the
Panama Canal Zone, Supreme Court
bar of the republic of Panama and
the District of Columbia bar. He
was member Of the Southern
Society of Washington. of which
he was former president
He also was president of the
International Association of Arts
and Letters, vice president of the
Art and Archaeology League of
Washington. member of the Inter-
national Rotary, Sigma Phi Epsilon,
and first president of the first club
and first international president of
Optimists International. He was
a Mason. an Elk, past chancellor
commander of the knights of
Pythias, a member and former
leader of the I. o. O. F. and men,
of the Baptist Church.
He was an officer in the Officers
Reserve Corps, United States Army.
Col. Owens married Miss Marie
Louise Kennedy of Williston, S. c.,
in 1899. In addition to his widow,
he leaves six children: Clarence
Julian Owens, jr., Quincy Kennedy
Owens, and Mrs Douglass Porter,
all of Washington. and William
Hamilton Owens of New York;
Alfred Arthur Owens of Silver
Spring, Md, and Mrs. Morgan
d'Espard Of Providence, R. l.: two
sisters, Mrs. Hugh E. Phillips of
Washington, and Mrs. Robert
Weathersby of Williston, and .
brother, Albert E. Owens OF this
CITY.
Plans are being made for burial
in Arlington National Cemetery.