Connecticut's Bingham

Sirs:

The undersigned would greatly appreciate it if you could give in your columns a report on Senator Hiram Bingham of Connecticut similar to those which appeared in your columns on other legislators recently.

Senator Bingham has been subject to considerable unfavorable publicity which we believe may be unwarranted. We feel that a resume such as we speak of will set some of these matters straight in the minds of your readers. W. A. ALLAN S. H. MILLER R. G. STERNLOF C. T. SPRAGUE E. G. REED

Hartford, Conn.

The record of Senator Hiram ("Hi") Bingham of Connecticut is as follows:

Born: at Honolulu, H. I., Nov. 19, 1875.

Start in lije: a futile attempt, at the age of 12, to stow away on a sailing vessel for world explorations.

Career: His father Hiram, descendant of Thomas Bingham, Connecticut settler of 1650, was a pioneer missionary in the Gilbert Islands. While Bingham Sr. pushed deep into the tropic wilderness to translate the Bible into heathen dialects, his son remained in Hawaiian schools. He was sent to the U. S. at 18, was graduated from Yale in 1898, returned to Hawaii to serve briefly as superintendent of Palama Chapel Mission, as chemist at Molokai for American Sugar Co. A year later he returned to the U. S., studied at the University of California, at Harvard. Equipped with a Harvard Ph. D. he taught history and politics for a year at Princeton.

In 1906 began his South American travels, from which he gained his reputation as an explorer, his admission to the Explorers' Club. Each exploration produced a book. The 1,000-mi. jungle journey along the route of Bolivar became Journal of an Expedition Across Venezuela and Colombia (1909). His exploration of the old Spanish trade route from Buenos Aires to Lima, resulted in Across South America (1911). He led a Peruvian expedition which discovered the last Inca capital, climbed Mt. Corpuna (21,703 ft.) in the Andes. Out of these excursions came Vitcos, the Last Inca Capital (1912), In the Wonderland of Peru (1913), Incaland (1922).

When he was not exploring South America he was teaching young men at Yale their Latin-American history.

When the U. S. went to War, he learned to fly in a U. S. school at Miami, Fla., was commissioned a lieutenant-colonel in the Air Service, chief of the Air Personnel Division at Washington. In March 1918 he was sent to France, became commanding officer of the great U. S. flying school at Issoudun. The War over, he went exploring to the Fiji Islands, wrote An Explorer in the Air Service (1920).

In 1916 he began to dabble in Connecticut Republican politics. He went to national conventions, discussed high theories of government, served as a presidential elector. In 1922 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Connecticut. In November 1924, he was elected Governor. A Connecticut vacancy in the Senate followed the suicide of Senator Frank Bosworth Brandegee. In December 1924, he was elected Senator. In January 1925, he was ceremoniously inaugurated Governor, resigned the next day to take his seat in the U. S. Senate.

In Congress: His first important assignment came when President Coolidge appointed him to the Aircraft Inquiry Board (1925).

He voted for Farm Relief (1929), Tax Reduction (1926, 1928, 1930), Reapportionment (1929), the Navy's 15-cruiser bill (1929). He voted against Farm Relief (1927, 1928), the Jones (heavier Prohibition penalties) Law (1929), Boulder Dam (1928).

He votes Wet, drinks Wet, extols temperance over Prohibition.

In foreign affairs, he is a sort of second-generation isolationist. He favors the World Court if U. S. entry is reserved. He opposes disarmament, urges a larger national defense, argues that U. S. preparedness does not threaten world peace because no republic can make aggressive war. Before the War he opposed the Monroe Doctrine, wrote a book calling it An Obsolete Shibboleth (1913). When that volume was quoted against him in Senate debate, he announced he had reversed his position, upheld the Monroe Doctrine as an essential part of U. S. defense. He has no objection to the use of U. S. Marines in Nicaragua, Haiti or elsewhere.

Legislative Hobbies: Aeronautics: high tariff for Connecticut manufactures.

The most constructive legislation that bears his name is the Air Commerce Act of 1926 which set up U. S. control over civil aeronautics. Never radical, he did not favor, after the Aircraft Inquiry of 1925, a united Army & Navy air department. He took the lead in U. S. commemoration of the first Wright flight at Kitty Hawk, N. C. He makes frequent and long speeches in the Senate on the need for aviation development, for more airports. He has a bill pending to enlarge the Department of Commerce's powers in investigating civil air accidents. He is the Senate's most airminded Senator, might well be rated its aeronautical expert. His zeal for a high tariff combined with his professed ignorance of tariff matters led to his disastrous use of Charles L. Eyanson, assistant to the president of the Connecticut Manufacturers Association (TIME, Oct. 28). Eyanson was sent to his office to tell him what Connecticut manufacturers wanted out of the Tariff, to supply him with economic arguments to obtain it. He made Eyanson a technical Senate employe, took him into a secret meeting of the Senate Finance Committee. Eyanson drew Senate pay, received but did not cash a $1,000 check from the Senator. For this the Senate voted a resolution of censure against Senator Bingham. His offense, in his critics' eyes, was his attempt to deceive Senators as to Eyanson's identity and connections. The moral appearance of the situation was worse than the basic facts. It was never proved that Eyanson's presence obtained any undue advantages for the Connecticut Manufacturers Association. He is unpopular in the Senate. On first entering that body he made a bad start by delivering a maiden speech, introducing himself, which struck many a listener as highly egotistical. He addresses the Senate in the same professorial manner he used toward his students at Yale. Senators resent being lectured and most of his speeches are lectures. After a trip to the Philippines he told Senators all about the islands as if they had never heard of them. Many a Senator voted to censure him for the Eyanson affair because of a longstanding irritation with what they considered his scholastic arrogance, his mental self-satisfaction. The tallest Senator (6 ft. 4 in.), he is lanky and thin-shouldered, though he carries his height well. Onetime Senator Jim Reed of Missouri, who disliked him intensely, referred to him sneeringly in debate as "The Tall Cedar of Lebanon." His features have an Indian regularity, almost handsome. His expression is one of serene superiority. His soft snow-white hair stands out in the shadowy Senate chamber like a white plume. When he walks he strides. His suits are soft and grey, easy-fitting. While a Harvard post-graduate student (1900), he married short, slender Alfreda Mitchell of New London, Conn., who has borne him seven large sons--Woodbridge (28), Hiram, Alfred, Charles, Brewster, Mitchell, Jonathan (16). He likes to be photographed with them in a descending row. In Washington he lives in an apartment on upper 16th Street. His Connecticut home is on Prospect Street, New Haven. He plays much golf and bridge, both fairly well. He travels by airplane whenever he can secure an Army or Navy aviator to transport him. He has not piloted a plane alone since he left France. He owns a La Salle automobile, drives it himself between Washington and New Haven. He is actively interested in Washington society, entertaining much himself, accepting all fashionable invitations. A Congregationalist, he is no regular church attendant. Despite the rough treatment the Senate accorded him, he is irrepressible on the floor. He sits in the middle of the rear row on the Republican side, his right hand to his cheek, one long finger pointing thoughtfully upward. Frequently he rises to pace the small corner area behind the Republican desks, hands sunk deep in trouser pockets, head lowered in meditative attitude. He is no rough-and-tumble debater; agile Democratic wits often make him appear silly. Their barbs, however, cannot squelch him and he returns to the fray again and again with his tall scholastic arguments. He is generally a well-informed speaker, though there is no vitalizing warmth in his words. He speaks slowly, almost drawlingly. But his very didacticism drives Senators from the chamber when he begins an address. He has learned well the rules of the Senate, is a skillful parliamentarian. Since the censure, he has seemed inwardly un- comfortable in the Senate, though holding his head as high as ever. Lately he confided to the Explorers' Club in Manhattan: "Senators I understand not at all. I understand so much better the ethics and morals of explorers. I am weary of following the devious ways of politicians and those who would like to call themselves statesmen. The way ol the explorer is better." Impartial Senate observers rate him thus: a schoolman with excellent mental equipment, he has not fitted well into the Senate because of a manner of mind that irks the men he must work with. On paper his wide qualifications would indicate that he should be an intellectual leader of the Senate. In practice his effectiveness is seriously blunted by what other Senators consider his assumption of superiority. He is hardworking, zealous, regular as the calendar in his Republicanism. (In fact, he considers some Hoover policies too radical for him to follow.) The Eyanson affair, just or unjust, has hurt his standing. He has courage: he brazened out that episode rather than crawl to his tormentors for forgiveness. A strong partisan himself, he is responsible for the unfavorable publicity that has been his. His term expires March 3, 1933.--ED.

Princeton Seminary

Sirs:

. . . The statement that this institution "long dedicated to old evangelical doctrine, underwent changes in control which guarantee that its attitude and influence would hereafter be Modernistic" (TIME, Jan. 27) is absolutely contrary to fact.

I am sending herewith a copy of recent issue of the seminary bulletin which I trust you will read. From this you will learn that the new board of control, composed of eminent men whose integrity cannot be questioned, have pledged themselves to maintain the historic conservative doctrinal position of Princeton Theological Seminary.

J. Ross STEVENSON

President

The Theological Seminary Princeton, N. J.

Says the Seminary Bulletin for November 1929: ". . . the assertion was made and given wide publicity that the reorganization of the seminary would lead to the abandonment of [its] historical position . . . and will go over to a position vaguely described as 'Liberal' or 'Modernistic' . . . it has been insinuated that professors . . . and members of the board have in some way departed from their former Christian faith. . . . for these attacks upon the seminary there is not the slightest foundation . . . no professor of this seminary has voiced the slightest doubt as to the authority of scripture, as to the miraculous birth and acts of Christ, as to His atoning work, His resurrection, His personal return, or any other doctrine of the Presbyterian Church . . . the new board at its first meeting made the following corporate declaration: '. . . the temporary board of directors feels that it has a solemn mandate . . . to do nothing whatever to alter the distinctive traditional position which the seminary has maintained throughout its history.' "--ED.

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