February 10, 1934
THE STATE
Page Eleven
LEGISLATIVE
PERSONALITIES
MANY of the wives and sweet¬
hearts of the members of that
celebrated 1931 General As¬
sembly will probably vote for Senator
Hayden Clement, of Rowan, for Gov¬
ernor in 1936 in sheer gratitude for the
great defense he made of their men folks
relative to a sensational charge leveled
against them by a member of the 1931
House.
I do not mean to say that that speech
was Senator Clement’s opening speech
of his rumored campaign for the guber¬
natorial nomination in 1936, but it was
one of many that have served to
make the Rowan man a state-wide fig¬
ure during his two terms ns a member
of the state senate.
But far be it from me to turn seer
and attempt to predict what may hap¬
pen in 1936. Right now it is an inci¬
dent occurring in the spring time of
1931 that I choose to write.
Not in generations had the people
seen a North Carolina legislature so
tied in knots as was the 1931 assembly,
but they were hardly prepared one day
to read in the papers that Angus Dhu
Maclean, then a representative from
Beaufort, had charged on the floor of
the House of Representatives that in
his opinion the legislative impasse had
been brought about in effect by a com¬
bination of “wine, women and song.”
That charge not only electrified the
legislators, but it did the same to the
people as well. Newspapers all over
the state fairly screamed the MacLean
assertion in bold, black headlines. Lady
members of bridgo clubs were provided
with their choicest gossip of weeks. Some
said wives of legislators suddenly decid¬
ed they wanted to see the Legislature in
session. Mr. MacLean had not singled
out any particular group, but had lev¬
eled the charge against all.
Legislators were in a stew. They
fretted and mumbled and swore in pri¬
vate. Not even the speech made by
“Uncle Joe” Garibaldi, a house member
from Mecklenburg, in which he nearly
burst a blood vessel in making defense
of his fellow members of the charge,
seemed to help things.
Since the majority of the members
of the 1931 house were ready to jump
through the hoop if Mr. MacLean told
them to jump, it seemed as though the
charge leveled by the Beaufort law¬
maker was largely aimed at the senate,
where a veritable cat and dog fight had
SENATOR HAYDEN CLEMENT
- ★ -
been going on for weeks as the anti¬
sales tax group held fast their lines to
thwart MacLcan’s plan for a sales tax
as a replacement for a property tax for
support of the public school system.
Members of the senate seemed to be
as sore as an old owl boiled in several
pots of hot water. After all, the senate,
also known as the “Upper House,” had
been slandered and by a member of the
so-called “Lower House.” Something
had to be done, so it seemed.
Whether Senator Clement was asked
to “defend" the senate is something I
do not know, but I do know that the
day he arose in the senate to make reply
to MacLenn’s charge, he gave the “Gen¬
tleman from Beaufort” one of the most
scorching tongue lashings by inference
that he undoubtedly ever received or
will receive in a public place.
Senator Clement had evidently given
much thought to the reply he was to
make, and time and again he climbed
the very heights of oratory as he re¬
called selections from Kipling's “If’
and the works of other classical authors
in ridiculing the MacLean charge. As
I recall he never mentioned Mr. Mac-
Lean’s name, but long before he closed
with these words, “Lord Angus, thou
hast lied,” a selection, I believe from
Sir Walter Scott's “Marinion,” his
hearers knew the man to whom he
No. 18
Hayden Clement
By
Wade II. Lucas
was making reply. And great was the
applause he received. Mr. MacLean
apologized in the house for what he
had said, but the Clement speech had
had its effect.
The Rowan lawmaker is of the studi¬
ous type. One can usually rest assured
that when he takes the floor of the
senate to make a >peech the air will
not be filled with a lot of disjointed
words. The senator gets a good grasp
of legislation that is up before the sen¬
ate and knows how to express himself
so that his auditors will not have to
scratch their heads wondering what he
was trying to say.
He is not addicted to the habit of
walkiug up to a person and slapping
his back. 1 venture the assertion that
in the two times the people of Rowan
have sent him to the senate he never had
to kiss any babies to get elected. Neither
is he the type of legislator to stand on
the floor and say “my pee-pul” want
this or that bill passed. He has that
state-wide viewpoint and seems to like
to help enact laws for the good of all
the people of North Carolina.
In the ferocious fighting in the 1931
senate over the sales tax issue Senator
Clement stood out in that fight like
Stonewall Jackson at the first Battle of
Bull Run. He helped carry the ora¬
torical burden for the anti-sales tax ele¬
ment and his speeches undoubtedly had
a steadying effect on some of the waver¬
ing senators in that fight, the like of
which the people of the state had never
seen before.
As an antidote for the sales tax he
knew was certain to come with the con¬
vening of the 1933 session, Senator
Clement sought to get passed what he
called a production tax. His follow
members could not bring themselves to
pass the measure, however, but the
Rowan lawmaker never quit trying. The
afternoon the senate decided to uccept
the sales tax Senator Clement again of¬
fered his production tax measure, only
to sec it discarded again.
He served as the chairman of the
1933 senate's Committee on Appropria¬
tions and did what many considered a
good job in view of the fact that the
state budget had to be given a whale of
a slicing for the current biennium. And
serving as chairman of cither the sen¬
ate’s or house’s appropriations com¬
mittee in the 1933 General Assembly
was no bed of roses.
