State

July 14,1934 THE STATE Page Nineteen LEGISLATIVE PERSONALITIES ★ IN' unkind Into in 101"» kepi an /V not i vo member of the 1933 & Ж House of Representatives front becoming an accomplished tiller of the soil and caused him to take up the study of law. In Cary, Wake County, in 1015 W. Brantley Womble, a big, strapping youth of 18 years, bad majored in agriculture in the noted Cary High school and as the result of his aptitude for knowing what the soil could do he had been named in a group to go to Chicago to participate in a national crop judging contest. Returning to Cary, Mr. Womble fell between the cars of the train he was on and lost his right leg. Then and there a promising career as a farmer, not to mention a baseball player, was ruined. Weeks later lie came home on crutches. I have known Brantley Womble for six or seven years and it was not un¬ til the other day that I learned how he lost his leg and how he served for more than a year in the American army during the World War with a wooden leg. The North Carolina Manual, a book published every session of the legisla¬ ture to keep for posterity the name* of those who help make the State's laws every two years, carries a capsule biography of Brantley Womble, but the Wake legislator of 1933 never filled in the section asking him if he hail any war record. As 1 said, 1 have known Mr. Wom¬ ble for about seven years, watched him in action for 135 days during the 1933 legislative session, and never until the other day when he casually mentioned something about serving in the army after he had told me in response to a question as to how lie lost his leg did I know lie did his bit in 1917-18. It was one of the most interesting stories I have heard in years. In the summer of 1917 he was sell¬ ing wooden legs for a Philadelphia concern preparatory to entering the University of North Carolina that fall. Being a one-legged man, he did not enlist, but registered under the selec- W. BRANTLEY WOMBLE - ★ - live service or draft act. He had out¬ fitted himself with an artificial limb and was making good sidling legs to other people. Caine a call from the draft hoard for Wake County in Raleigh for him to appear for examination. The notice reached him in New Jersey, where he was plying his trade. To Raleigh he eamc. Appearing before the draft Liard, the doctor in charge came in to find Womble and a large niimlier of others waiting to !"• examined. "I lined up with the others and went down the line," said Mr. Womble. “Apparently there had lienn a call t" send on the draftees as fast ns possible. Aside from my wooden leg, I looked healthy enough. I weighed about 175. The doctor thumped me on the cheat, listened to my heart l»e:it a numlier of times and told me to head for a motorized training camp near Char lottesville, Va. The same procedure was repeated there. On the back of the pajiers I had to till out I noted I had a wooden leg. Apparently they overlooked that and I did not men¬ tion it." In time he found himself in the olive drab of one of Uncle Sam’s soldiers ★ and in time the lop sergeant of his detail found Brantley Womble bad a wooden leg. In time the colonel, in¬ formed by the sergeant, also found Private Womble bad n wooden leg. The devil was to pay for a time. The colonel actually “cussed" and Mr. Womldc said his colonel needed no post-graduate course in “cussing." The upshot was that Mr. Womble was sent to a munitions camp near Charles¬ ton, W. Va.. after he begged not. to lie sent home. There he served until about two months after the Armistice was signed ns n member of a detail of army men used to corral workers to make explosives. As one of the three House members from Wake in 1933. Brantley Womble liecnmc one of the most active of its members. Tie was unusually active in helping to promote the enactment of laws making farm and home foreclos¬ ures less drastic and he battled suc¬ cessfully to cut down attorney's fees on such foreclosures. A member of l he House finance committee, he look a leading part in II. B. 158. the tax foreclosure bill, that was designed to help the farm owners keep their prop¬ erty. This bill and companion meas¬ ures did not med with the approval of the lax-collecting authorities and I lie county commissioners of the State, bnl fewer farmers beard the wolves howling about their doors. Sheriffs also paid fewer visits to farm and home owners than they did in the dark days of 1930-33. Bnfus A. Doughton, of Alleghany, who served his first House term nine years before Brantley Womble was horn, took a liking to him in the 1933 House. In fact he took such a liking to lii in he wrote a letter saying the people of Wake should return Mr. Womble to the 1935 House. The text •if that letter was not used by Brant¬ ley Womble in bis campaign. He was defeated in the second primary.