Return of Blanton

Last week voters of the 17th Congressional District of Texas put aside sentiment and gallantry to send Thomas Lindsay Blanton back to the House of Representatives. So impatient was he to take his old seat and rattle the chamber's glass ceiling once more with his mighty voice that he beat his credentials to Washington, was denied the oath of office until they arrived.

Congressman Blanton of Abilene appeared in the House in 1917, a thick- shouldered, stocky, irascible Texan who made himself conspicuous if not popular by his bellowings and parliamentary "cussedness." He was, however, behind his aggressive loudness, shrewd, hardworking, sincere. In 1928 his defeat in Texas for the Democratic senatorial nomination retired him from the House. Robert Quincy Lee, elected to his House seat, died last April.

By growing custom a widow of a representative may have his House seat if she wants it. Widow Lee became a candidate. So did Tom Blanton. Fighting a woman did not soften his voice or make him more gentle. With ear-splitting roars, his heels pressed together, his arms flying, he inveighed against the political sentimentalism of voting for a widow, pointed to his own twelve-year record as a lawmaker. He reminded voters that the House, as it always does to a Representative's widow, would vote Mrs. Lee her husband's salary for one year ($10,000). Final vote: Blanton, 8,501; Widow Lee, 6,817.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.