Evening star., 1943-01-31
Capital SideIiehts
By viii P. Kennedy.

as is generally supposed, the youngest
man ever to serve in the United States
Senate. That honor really belongs to
later Secretary of War in President
Jacksons cabinet, Governor of Florida
and Minister to Spain. This is disclosed
by Senator Kenneth D. McKellar Of
Tennessee in book just published, car
rying the biographies of 80 Tennessee
Senators. Clay, who was born April II,
1777 was appointed to the Senate to I'LL
vacancy and served from November 10,
1906, to March 3, 1907, which service
was rendered in contravention Of the
30-year age requirement OF the Ccnsti-
tution," according to the od1cial con-
gressional biography Eaton was born
on June 18, 1890. He was appointed as
Senator September S, 1918. and on that
date he was % years. months and II
days old He was elected Senator on
October 8, 1819 when he lacked
months and days of being 80, the
constitutional age for a Senator. $50
far as have been able to discover" says
Senator McKellar, "the fact that Senator
Eaton was elected at much earlier age
than Clay-and, indeed. that he was the
youngest Senator ever to occupy a seat
in that body-has never been mem
toned"
There Is one new member of the House
who has already won recognition as the
"topnotcher of Congress" and the man
the Capital looks up to'-"Im Lowell
Stocknan of Pendleton. Oreg.," he ex-
plains himself Mr.. -foot-six. the
man who beat the unbeatable Walter
Pierce, eloquent spokesman for the land
Of the white faced CATTLE" his COL
leagues describe him. He comes to Con-
gress as a man not tried in the fiery
furnace but as man proven during the
depression period, in bleak winter on a
980-acre dry-farm ranch, when he had
to burn his wheat crop to keep his family
from freezing to death. He is known as
the Paul Bunyan of Oregon politics"
says his colleague, Representative Homer
D. Angel. He isn't riding any hobby
horse or being ridden as q strict party
man. He isn't preparing to make the
welkin ring.
I'm just going to tackle things, one
at time, as they come up" says this
17O-pound neophite in the national
legislative halls. When he was years
old he made up his mind he was going
to the State Agricultural College and
get his degree-and he entered at the
age of II. He was just an average "one
of the boys" He worked summers as
farm hand to earn his way. In COL
lege he met lifelong friend, Matthew
H. Ellsworth. They graduated together
20 years ago. Mr.. Ellsworth made a
distinguished record as newspaper
publisher and both were elected to this
Seventy eighth Congress. Meanwhile
Mr.. Stockman had passed through his
frigid Gethsemane. On a shoestring
he went back on the old family ranch
which his parents had quit, patching
it, the first year, doing his own cooking.
The second year he leased an addi-
tional 500 acres Then he married
Mama "-Dorcas Conklin, a graduate
In physical education from the State
University. He continued to expand,
building the first bulk elevator on a
railroad siding, buying horses mules,
combines, drills, etc. In 194l, when
wheat was going begging at Is cents a
bushel, he sold what he could and
buried the $500 receipts in a tin coffee
can under locust tree in the front
yard. Now he is growing two specially
crops along with his wheat. He is the
largest grower in the Northwest OF
crested grass seed, Siberian importa-
ton for reseeding grange land, and
raising alfalfa for seed on the hilly
wheat country instead of the usual
bottom lands.
Many friends at the Capitol have Just
learned about 1t. Comdr. Jack K McFall,
until recently popular clerk of the
House Appropriations Committee now
on assignment for the United States
Navy in FreetoWn, Africa Representa-
tive Fred Bradley of Michigan has had
printed in the Congressional Record q