Patriarch

The Senate's patriarch last week had a birthday. Republican Senator Francis Emory Warren of Wyoming was 85. The Senate rose and cheered him.

The occasion called attention to the fact that Senator Warren, besides being the oldest Senator, had established a new duration record. No man in U. S. history can match his 36 1/2 years of Senate service. It was, however, not yet a non-stop record. Senator Warren "took off" on his first Senate flight on Dec. 1, 1890 as one of Wyoming's first pair of Senators. He was obliged to "land to refuel" politically for two years (1893-95) when a deadlock in the Wyoming legislature on selecting a Senator reused a vacancy. The second Warren flight began March 4, 1895 and has continued ever since, with the aged Senator still flying vigorously and giving no sign of coming down into the field of private citizenship. This continuous stretch of service has been surpassed by only one U. S. Senator--William Boyd Allison. (1873-1908) of Iowa whose non-stop record of 35 years, five months will fall when Senator Warren and the calendar reach Sept. 4, 1930.

Tribute to Senator Warren's years was paid by Tennessee's Democratic Senator McKellar who wished him many happy returns of the day, recited his venerable record and said: "I take off my hat to him . . . make my bow in admiration of him . . . congratulate him on his clean and splendid life."

Lifting his heavy body to legs widely bowed by much riding on Wyoming ranges, Senator Warren expressed his appreciation for this "unexpected and generous tribute." Said he: "I have to plead guilty to the accumulation of my years. . . . When I entered the Senate I stated correctly the date of my birth; I did not hide it as, perhaps, some have done; I have never changed it in the records and so I find that this is the next to the last day of the eighty-fifth year of life."

Tears rolled down the rugged Warren cheeks and were frankly wiped away by a large white handkerchief as the Senate rose en masse to applaud unstintedly its laconic patriarch.

A rich sheep rancher, Republican Senator Warren was dubbed "the greatest shepherd since Abraham" because of his interest in a high wool tariff. His friends have now twisted this sarcastic epithet around to refer, in complimentary manner, to his legislative skill in herding bills through to passage. For the past eight years he has been chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, a post largely honorary since the House Appropriations Committee really does the hard work of framing supply bills.

Other Warren distinctions: As the Senate's only Civil War veteran, he holds the Congressional Medal of Honor. The highest peak in Wyoming (13,725 ft. in Wind River Range) was named Mount Warren for him. His influence was largely responsible for the selection of his son-in-law, General John Joseph Pershing, to command the A. E. F.