OBITUARY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 84, 10 April 1931, Page 9

OBITUARY

NICHOLAS LONGWORTH

ROOSEVELT'S SON-IN-UW

SPEAKER OF CONGRESS'

t'liilcd Tress Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received 10th April, 1 p.m.) WASHINGTON, 9th April. Mr. Nicholas Longworth, Speaker of the National House of Representatives, died at Aikons, South Carolina, on Thursday of pneumonia at the ago of 62. He took ill on Monday.

"If Nicholas Longworth's liat is in the ring for the Presidential nomination, it is suro to bo a woll-brushod one and of tho latest style.. Of all the men in public life to-day he is probably tho best dressed. He is the only man in Washington who can wear spats without attracting attention to his feet, the only one who can wear a top hat withou looking funereal," said the "New York Times" three years ago, when Longworth seemed, a Presidential possibility.

Longworth was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and he married the popular daughter of a most popular President. By all political rules he was doomed to the innocuous position of husband and son-in-law. But he managed to livo down these handicaps. Miss Boosevelt has become "Mrs. Longworth" everywhere; and it.was shown that the silver spoon did not preclude an appetite for hard work.

In these days -when farmhouses and city tenements arc still looked upon as the proper early surroundings for American statesmen, it is difficult for a man who from his earliest youth, has been accustomed to dress for dinner to become a political loader. Strength, to American minds, is not clothed in a morning coat and striped trousers; ordinarily the iron grip is not covered ■with a kid glove. Nevertheless Nicholas Longworth went into an office and hung his bowler on a peg that formerly held a broad-brimmed felt hat; the aroma of chewed cigars gave way to the smoke of cigarettes, and the top of the desk, scratched by hob-nailed boots, was re-polished. Frock coats were relegated to the historical museums. It was not quick work.. Longworth's progress as a Representative of his native State, Ohio, from one commit; tee to another, then to the place of majority floor leader, and finally to the position of Speaker of the House, was slow but steady. There were no elements of the spectacular in his climb. SUCCESSFUL MAN. Seated at his desk, the light from two windows falling on his well-rounded features and his greying moutaehe, which alone gives evidence of his sixty-one years, Longworth looked very much like a man who had succeeded in life. About him still clung the unmistakable hallmarks of the Mauve Decade. He sprang from the era of Richard Harding Davis and Edith Wharton, and he could best be described by those expressive words of the .'nineties: "Sauve and debonair." About him was an aura of courtly geniality unruffled by the ruthloss hand of efficiency. He gave orders with a smile, but they were carried out; his reproofs were tempered with kindliness of eye. He was pleased rather than delighted, and things to him were "charming" rattier than "bully." , Not long ago he was quoted as say-; me that he preferred the office ot Speaker to that of any other position m th?'?sup rp™''he said, "it is because I prefer legislative to executive work; in fact, I have been engaged m it ever since I left college. I studied law; my father was' a lawyer, and it. was with the idea of practising that I went through both the Harvard and Cincinnati law schools. But five years after graduation I was elected tothe House of Representatives of the Ohio General Assembly, and with the exception of two years I have been serving m some Legislature ever since." Longworth was distinctly a party man. When his distinguished father-in-law broke with the Republicans in 1912, Longworth, true to his belief in party adherence, did not hesitate to campaign his district for Taft, though in spite of this action he was m the awkward position of having the diehards, spurn him because he was Roosevelt's son-in-law, while the Progressives frowned on him. on account of his conservatism. . His partisanship did not restrain him, however, from leaving the chair in_ order to speak against President Coohdge s naval Bill, to which He was opposed. He appeared to have no personal hatreds or resentments, and he never allowed -political differences to interfere witn his friendships. One of his most intimate friends was Representative Garner, of Texas, who for years was his political foe. . WITTY. Althongh classed as a conservative Republican, he had a record of liberal voting equal to that of many declared Progressives. He led the insurgent movement which kept the Speakership from the late James Mann, accomplished legislator and parliamentarian. The chief, feature of his programme as floor leader was the doing away with blocs. His quick wit and faculty of taking serious things lightly often came to tho aid of all. More than once he had allayed bitter feeling with a bit oE. a .iingle. Once tho tariff on dyes was the cause of an uproar at a meeting of the ways and means committee. Hill an eminent "wet" of Maryland, led the fight for a duty on dyes. Longworth favoured a complete embargo. Words wore running hot and high. Becoming uneasy, Longwor.th scribbled: 'Twixt Hill and Hell there is' but one letter. If Hill were in Hell this Bill would be better.

' The mildness of his policy often made it doubly effective. He was the most popular Speaker Washington, had had. But ho did not keep good order in the House. Then there was the romance of Nicholas Longworth and Alice Roosevelt. When the engagement of tho "Princess Alice," as President Roosevelt's daughter was known, aad the popular Congressman was announced, social Washington had muck to talk about. Longworth was 36 and Miss Roosevelt 21. Their wedding in the Bast Room, of tho White House on 17th February, 190G, was a brilliant affair witnessed by nearly 1000 guests. Congress adjourned, without giving a reason to avoid precedent, to do honour to the 10th White House bride and the representative from Ohio. It is said that Longworth later confided, to frionds that ho soon realised it was something of a political handicap to be identified as the "husband of Alice Roosevelt." Although_ Mrs. Roosevelt has been credited with a good deal of political activity, it has functioned by way of the Senate rather than in the House, and has had more to do with tho promotion of measures than the fortunes of individuals.