Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 68, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 April 1899 — REED TO RETIRE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

REED TO RETIRE.

Speaker Quits Politics to Take Up the Profession of Law. Thomas Brackett Reed has become the head of the New York law firm of Simpson, Thacher & Barnum, and it is understood that he will soon resign his seat in Congress and remove to that city. The contract has been signed whereby he is to take up the practice of hie profession immediately upon his return from a brief trip abroad. Speaker Reed has known the members of- the firm for many years and has had frequent business dealings with them. Though he had received offers to go to the head of several perhaps better known firms, he early expressed his preference for the one with which he is to be asso-

ciated. The Speaker is said to have been assured of an income of at least $50,000 a year, an emolument equal to that of the President of the United States, from insurance companies alone. He will continue to act as referee for the several insurance corporations for which he has been recently acting, and friends say that his income may yet amount to SIOO,OOO annually. , Washington politicians say Speaker Reed’s retirement from Congress just now is the best possible play he could make for the presidency. It is taken for granted that he will not be a candidate against McKinley next year, but it is also believed he is looking ahead to 1904. Of the candidates for the Speakership the youngest is Sherman, who is 44 years old. Hopkins is 52, Dalzell 54, Payne 56, Henderson 59, Cannon 63, and Grosvenor and Hepburn 66.

SPEAKER REED.