June 16, 1934
THE STATE
LEGISLATIVE
PERSONALITIES
BARRING an upset of a miracu¬
lous nature, Claude Carl
Cannadny, of Benson will on
next January 1, become solicitor of the
Fourth Judicial District and when lie
does he will be the first Johnston
County lawyer to become solicitor of
the district since the late Edward
William Pou gave up the same office
in 1899 to go to Washington ns the
congressman of the Fourth Congres¬
sional District.
Of course, politics is a funny thing
and Mr. Cannadny might have to how¬
to his Republican opponent in the
November election, but hardly so un¬
less thousands of Democrats in
Chatham, Lee. Harnett, Johnston and
Wnvne counties that embrace the
judicial district, turn Republicans by
next November.
County Judge Daniel Bell, of Chat¬
ham. second man in the five-cornered
race that saw Harnett’s J. Robert
Young and James Best and Wayne’s
Needham Outlaw eliminated in the
first primary for the sent Clawson L.
Williams, of Lee, is giving up to suc¬
ceed Judge Frank Daniels, of Wayne,
next January, decided he would not
oppose Mr. Cannadny in a second
primary. Thus he made the nimble-
tongued Cannadny the nominee.
Nimble-tongucd, incidentally, is a
good term to use to describe Johnston’s
Claude Carl Cannadny, who served in
I the 1927 and 1929 sessions of the
State Senate and who had as much
to do as any one other man in help¬
ing push through the O. Max Gardner-
sponsored State Workmen’s Compensa¬
tion Act during that 1929 session.
Having been a reportorial observer
of the 1927 and 1929 sessions of the
State Senate. I will recall the trials
and tribulations through which Senator
Canadav went, but to tell the truth
he was a man possessed of such a quick
and ready tongue that it was seldom
he got into oratorical waters that were
over his head. He had a faculty for
being able to take care of himself
on the floor of the Senate, but it is
only fair to say that the late Senator
Willie Mangum Person, of Franklin,
sometimes upset the aplomb of the
quick-witted Cannaday.
Occupying the aisle seat on the west
side of the Senate chamber; the one
which Senator Robert March Hanes,
CLAUDE CANNADY, OF BENSON
- ★ -
of Forsyth, occupied in the 1933 ses¬
sion. Senator C'annaday was in pos¬
session of a vantage point from which
he could toss harmless oratorical bombs
at the always talkative Senator Person,
who, it might be said, occupied the
front aisle sent on the east side of the
chamber. The two were so seated that
Senator Person had to turn himself
and his red vest half way around to
level his eyes upon Johnston's Mr.
Cannaday.
In the first of this series of
"Legislative Personalities,’’ I told
several of the never-to-be-forgotten
incidents that occurred during the final
legislative term Senator Person was to
serve and ns I recall I mentioned
Senator Cannaday in a number of
them. But they are true incidents that
will bear telling again and they never
are old when told in the presence of
those who had anything at all to do
with that 1929 session of the State
Senate.
Senator Cannaday loved Senator
Person, but loved to tease the old
gentleman. Now. teasing was some¬
thing Senator Pearson detested ami
Poke Nineteen
No. 36
Claude Carl Cann: Hly
By
Wade II. Lucas
woe lie to the man. I* he Republican
or Democrat, who evere tried t • • cross
verbal words with him.
1 recall how utterly disgucsted
Senator Person so frequently said he
was in the 1929 session over the fact
that Mr. Herbert Hoover walked off
with North Carolina’s electoral vote-
in the 192S election. Now Johnston
had given a majority to Mr. Hoover
and had elected Mr. Cannaday to the
Senate by a majority of 16 votes.
Senator Cannaday never told Senator
Person about that 16-vote majority,
but the red-vested Franklin Senator
found it out somehow. And did he
use that on Mr. Cannaday when tin-
latter crossed him on the Senate floor.
Having been an ally of Senator
Cannaday in probably one of the most
devesting traps ever laid for Senator
Person. I shall again relate the story
of the night that the Franklin Senator
attempted to read what he said was
“the future” of the Democratic party
from a crystal hall.
The Franklin Senator had given al¬
most a week’s notice that on a certain
Monday night he would turn seer and
prophet, too. to read "the future" of
his party. It was ly chance on the
day before the night on which he’spoke
that I learned Senator Person, who so
frequently said lie detested Republi¬
cans and rattlesnakes, had borrowed a
crystal ball that belonged to none other
than Gilliam Grissom, then Republican
Collector of Internal Revenue for
North Carolina, to rend the future of
the Democratic party.
Г
still think I can
1ю
forgiven for
telling Senator Cannaday what I
learned about that crystal ball. The
plan was to let Senator Person get
about a ton-minute start on what
threatened to be a two-hour speech
and the Senator Cannaday was to ask
him in a simple, child-like manner if
there were any truth to the report he
was reading the future of his party
from a Republican-owned crystal hall.
I revere the memory of the dead
as much as any living man. hut I
honestly believe Senator Person almost
had a stroke when Mr. Cannadny asked
him that question. His face turned
redder than his scarlet vest ; hi- stam¬
mered and in less than two minutes he
had taken his seat, but he never ad¬
mitted ho had Mr. Grissom's crystal
