Word: borah
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William Edgar Borah. Greatest Insurgent of them all, the man whose shadow from the Capitol falls farthest across the land, is thickset, long-lipped, blue-eyed William Edgar Borah of Idaho. All the world knows that he is the Senate's supreme orator, that he rides his horse "Governor" alone in Rock Creek Park every morning, that on his head is a mane of shaggy dark hair. All the world does not know that he carries a pocket comb, that he licks his thumb and slicks down his eyebrows, that he scribbles his name on loose paper when listening...
...Senator Borah last week did just the sort of thing that makes his critics call him a trimmer, and the Insurgents despair of him as a member of their group: Before the Senate were the Tariff Commission nominations. Senator Borah arose to say: "What kind of hybrid monstrosity are we creating by constituting these special commissions to deal with expert subjects and placing upon them men who are in no wise qualified as experts? Congress is rapidly delegating its power. We are surrendering the duties imposed upon us by the Constitution. ..." But when the vote came on Commissioner Edgar Brossard...
...German and Irish ancestry, Borah was born 65 years ago in Wayne County, Ill. His father was land poor. The boy read Shakespeare, saw Edwin Booth, yearned to go on the stage. Instead he went to Kansas, studied law there, moved on to Boise a year after Idaho's admission to the Union (1890). There he began a general law practice ultimately worth $30,000 per year. He married the then Governor McConnell's daughter Mamie. His professional reputation grew when he prosecuted the Coeur d'Alene dynamiting case and the case following assassination of Governor Frank...
...social character, Senator Borah divides his time between his Connecticut Avenue apartment and his dark, ground-floor offices on The Hill. He rarely attends parties or theatres. As Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, he refuses to allow himself to be lionized by the diplomatic corps. He is suspicious of Washington Society. Once he thundered: "It is far simpler to agree than disagree in Washington. If there is an atmosphere in God's world that weakens a man's backbone it is the atmosphere of Washington. The diluting process is constant and drastic." An explanation by Mrs. Borah...
Always individualistic in his political preferences, Senator Borah refused to follow Roosevelt into the Bull Moose Party though he thought Taft had stolen the Republican nomination. Likewise he let La Follette go off by himself as the Progressive presidential nominee. President Coolidge once summoned Borah to the White House, offered him a "place on the ticket." The Senator is said to have asked: "Which place...