Clarke Courier

MARTIN OF VIRGINIA
The following by John Temple Graves recently appeared in the New York American:
The Democratic leader of the United States senate is not like anybody else in the senate. He is unique and exceptionally effective. He was chosen as leader of the Democratic majority because they couldn't find anybody else in the senate to fill that post better—if as well.
There is not a Democrat in the senate, or a Republican, who would deny that Thomas Staples Martin, of Charlottesville, has been United States senator from Virginia since March 4, 1895, nearly twenty-three consecutive years. He came straight to the senate from the ranks, never having held a political office of any kind before. He amazed his State by being elected over Fitzhugh Lee—the most genial and beloved Virginian of his day—for the simple reason that he was the most practical and effective business man in Virginia politics.
Since that day in 1895 Thomas Martin has been the most powerful man in Virginia public life, never having lost a battle or a cause. It is amazing how the simple, quiet man could for so long a time have dominated the politics of the most illustrious and aristocratic Commonwealth of the South. But he has, and the longer he rules the better he is trusted and loved, for he is gentle and genial and diligent and loyal.
There is not a man in the entire senate who speaks less or accomplishes more than Martin. I said to him yesterday:
"I have never heard you speak more than an hour at a time in your twenty-three years in the senate."
"You have never heard me speak an hour," he replied. "I have never known the public question on which I could not say all I wished to say or needed to say in less than an hour."
When the Democratic leader speaks he is direct, clear-cut and forceful, speaking straight to the point in crisp, clear sentences, spoken in a clear tenor voice that carries every word to the far corners of the chamber. And when he has finished the subject is exhausted, the whole Democratic position is made clear, and he sits down. No rule of the cloture could ever touch the Senator from Virginia.
This Democratic leader never seeks the limelight, is absolutely void of vanity or ostentation, and almost invariably gets what he wants. Loyal to his party and his president, Senator Martin is steadfastly loyal to his convictions, and differs with the president fearlessly, as he did in opposing the censorship upon free speech and a free press.
No Commonwealth has a more effective senator than Thomas Martin, of Virginia.