Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1908 — UNITED STATES SENATOR JAMES A. HEMENWAY, of Booneville. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

UNITED STATES SENATOR JAMES A. HEMENWAY, of Booneville.

Who succeeded Charles W. Fairbanks, and is now the junior United States Senator from Indiana, has been in congress many years. In the lower house he gained a national reputation by his stringent guarding of the appropriation. Departments were accustomed to get their appropriations and then at the end of the year come in for additional allowances, which were always granted. Mr. Hemenway ruled that these departments must say in the beginning how much money it would take to run them, and no one was allowed to come back for extras as had been the custom for years. Heads of departments squirmed and blustered but they had to “toe the mark.’’ Mr. Hemenway might with propriety be called the "blacksmith” senator, because he arose to his present prominence from the forge. He was a first class blacksmith, what some would call a "crank” on the proper shoeing of horses. He was also a good mixer among men, and one day the people of his community asked him to run for a little office. He did so, was elected and ever since that time the people have kept him working for them, so well has he done his work.. While he is not noted as a great Orator, he is a speaker who gets right down to the hearts of his audience, and becomes consequently intensely interesting. In his speeches before the state conventions he has always held Mis own and sometimes even interested the vast crowd more than such orators as Beveridge, Hanly and Landis. Senator Hemenway is noted as one of the very best business men in Indiana.