Uncle Joe Cannon - The Story Of A Pioneer American (Paperback)

UNCLE JOE CANNON i own thus, JOSEPH GURNEY CANNON Speaker of the House of Representatives MR. CANNONS FOREWORD I am one of the great army of mediocrity which constitutes the majority. I have made little effort to separate myself from that majority, and it has not been difficult for me to keep in sympathy with the average citizen, for I have always belonged to that class, if it is a class. All - my experiences have been as an average man. Many of my friends have urged rne to write a book, but aside from a great respect for the cau tion of Job when he said, f Ob, that mine adver sary had written a book I have never in my dis cussion of public affairs conformed to a literary style. I have jollo ued the methods adopted when riding a western circuit, a sort of catch-as-catch can argiiment. To write is foreign to all my tastes and inclinations. I never wrote a speech and held it in respect long enough to deliver it. If rny experiences in public life, and my asso ciations with the men who have accomplished imich in legislation in the last fifty years, are of value to the present generation, the story must be written by some one else. I have gone over the record of my span of life with Mr. Busbey in a reminiscent way, and he has sifted the grain from the chaff. It is my story, but his book. J. G, CANNON EDITORS NOTE My husband, L. White Busbey, who died in Oc tober, 1925, was, during Mr. Cannons Speaker ship, his, private secretary. How he came to receive that appointment he tells in a diary entry made at the time DEAR BUSBEY Tlease call at the Speakers Room before 11 30 or after the House ad journs today. J. G. CANNON tc ln response to the above note, dated November 10, 1903, I called at theSpeakers Room on my way to the Press Gallery. Mr. Cannon had been elected Speaker the day before, and his room was crowded with members. His greeting to me was, Fm glad you have come. I want you to take that desk. You are Secretary to the Speaker I was taken by surprise as I had never sought public office, had never done any secretarial work and had no desire or intention to give up my work as the Washington correspondent of the Chicago Inter Ocean. I so told the Speaker. Oh, thats all fixed responded the Speaker. vi EDITORS NOTE I stopped in Chicago on my way east and Hinman, the Editor of the Inter Ocean, agreed to loan you to the House when I explained we needed you. You are not to be a secretary, for I never had one, but I need an assistant who knows men and meas ures, has political sense and the confidence of the Press Gallery. You are to be Speaker in this room and stand between me and the outside world that thinks it has business with the Speaker. You are also to be the man responsible if there is any news in this place and the boys in the gallery do not get it I had known Mr. Cannon as I had known other public men in Illinois and the West, not more inti mately. There was nothing personal about the selection. Mr. Cannon wanted a man of my train ing, and I seemed to fit in. The editor of the Chicago Inter Ocean wired me that he had con sented to Mr. Cannons request because it was of a character that could not be refused a draft on the office for government service. ec You will the Speaker went on, find your hands full, for so far as I have looked into the matter the Speaker has control of the south half of the capitol, manages the police, runs the res taurant, settles the contestsover committee rooms and is a general Poo Bah. Thats you. So take the oath EDITORS NOTE vii Thus began my more intimate acquaintance with Mr. Cannon which continued for twenty years. Many o Mr. Cannons friends in Congress and his other admirers in public life had repeatedly urged him to write the story of his career, believ ing that it would be a valuable contribution to American political history. That he could never be persuaded to do. It was then suggested to Mr. Busbey that lie, with Mr. Cannons consent, should be his biographer. To this Mr...