Evening star., 1955-02-27
More Than so Years Capitol Hill Battles and Laughs
Recalled by Preston Who for the Record, Is Retiring
Neville Chamberlain
lmpersonutor Due
To Wind Up Career
By GEORGE Kennedy

~ w HS 'S
By George Kennedy,
Jim Preston has retired. But
retirement cannot take this
veteran of So years of Govern
ment service from the Senate or
vice versa.
AS before, newly arrived cor
respondents on their first visit
to the comfortable room behind
the Senate press gallery are like
ly to find the lanky. moustached
Mr.. Preston seated there. his
long legs stretched toward the
fireplace.
As before, one Of their first
questions will be to ask who he
is. Everyone does. Perhaps that's
because his presence somehow
gives the room an air Of club
like elegance. Or perhaps it's
because he looks like the late
British prime minister. Neville
Chamberlain.
Newsmen Find q Friend.
And, as before, every news
paperman who introduces him
self will have made a friend.
While everyone asks who Jim
Preston is, no one would bother
to speculate as to his age. He's
contemporary. But the fact is
that he became superintendent
of the Senate Press Gallery at
the start of the 55th Congress
and that was in March 1897.
He was superintendent OF the
gallery until 1885. Then he went
to the National Archives. He
came back to the Capitol in 1941
as an indexer for the Senate
Journal. Shortly after he started
taking care of the registration OF
lobbyists in the Senate Secre-
tary's Office and it is from the
last job that he is retiring to-
morrow.
Jim has imperSonated Neville
Chamberlain without makeup in
a Gridiron Club show to the
great delight of Franklin D.
Roosevelt. He first realized how
much he looked like the dis
tinguished Englishman on visit
to Great Britain before the war.
In London people kept turning
and looking at him. In a town
in Wales an Englishman insisted
on speaking to him. He thought
Jim was Chamberlain. When he
heard Jim speak he saw his
error. No one has ever accused
Jim Preston of cultivating an
English accent.
Born in Washington.
Jim was born in Washington
on August 2, 1876. His father,
Herbert Preston, was Washing
ton correspondent for James
Gordon Bennett, jr.'s New York
Herald. When Jim was in
seventh grade the teacher sent
him home to get his father to
come to school to apologize for
Jim's conduct. Instead, the
father got Jim a job, first in
pension office. then with another
Washington correspondent. Jim
had to wash the windows but he
learned something about news
paper work. He used to go up on
the Hill as a Junior reporter for
the Boston Journal Bureau and
in 1897. when he was 20, his
associates got him the job of
superintendent of the Senate
Press Gallery.
John Sherman of Ohio. brother
Of the general, had just resigned
from the Senate 10 become Me-
Kinley's Secretary Of State. He
had been succeeded by Marcus
A. Hanna. The Senate was ruled
by Republican triumvirate, Al
drich Of Rhode Island. Hale Of
Maine and Allison Of Iowa. Jim
remembers how they ran it with
an iron hand and made sure of
one thing-that the Senate ad-
journed before the weather got
hot.
Senators were elected by State
legislatures. not by the people.
They were not greatly concerned
about public opinion and news
paper reporters. They wouldn't
bother to see the press. It was
typical for a Senator to have a
favorite reporter from a home
State newspaper which gave the
Senator political support. If the
Senator had interesting informa-
tion it went to that reporter
alone.
Secret Declaration Of War.
Jim remembers that the Senate
passed the resolution declaring
war on Spain in 1898 in executive
session with public and press
barred. That seems strange to
him now.
After the war Theodore Roose-
welt. the rough rider, came to the
Senate to preside there as Vice
President of the United States.
Jim remembers how Roosevelt's
friend. Henry Cabot Lodge,
coached him and mischievously
told him at the end of the session
to say adjourned sine die with
out date" The last two words are
the English translation of the
Latin. Roosevelt knew 1t but said
it the way Lodge told him, think
ing it the custom. It made him
sound ignorant about Latin and
everyone laughed.
Jim remembers the giants in
the Senate of the early years Of
this century-Beveridge of In
diana. Foraker of Ohio, Penrose
of Pennsylvania and Mat Quay
of the same State, Pitchfork Ben
Tillman of South Carolina,
Borah of Idaho, Pink -Whis-
kered" Jim Lewis of Illinois,
John Sharp Williams and James
K. Vardaman of Mississippi,
Elihu Root and Chauncey Depew