Proceedings of the Senate of Pennsylvania in commemoration of Hon. John W. Crawford : late a Senator from the forty-fifth district

John W. Crawf

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PROCEEDINGS

OF THE SENATE OF PENNSYIYANIA

IN COMMEMORATION OF

Hon. John ff. Crawford,

lATE A SENATOR

FROM THE FORTY-FIFTH DISTRICT,

TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1911.

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RESOLUTION.

In the Senate,
March 8, 1911.

Resolved (if the House of Representatives concur),
That one thousand (1,000) copies of the proceedings
of the memorial services, held in honor of the late
Honorable John W. Crawford, be printed for the use
of the Senate.

HARMON M. KEPHART,
Chief Clerk of the Senate.

The foregoing resolution concurred in March 13,
1911.

THOMAS H. GARVIN,
Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives.

Approved— The 15th day of March, A. D. 1911.

JOHN K. TENER.

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PROCEEDINGS
OF THE SENATE OF PENNSYLVANIA

UPON THE DEATH OF

HON. JOHN W. CRAWFORD.

In the Senate,
Tuesday, February 21, 1911.

On motion of Senator Wilbert, the following reso-
lution was twice read, considered and agreed to, viz:

Resolved that a committee of eight members of the
Senate be appointed to draft suitable resolutions on
the death of the late Senator, John W. Crawford, who
died on June thirty, one thousand nine hundred and
nine, and present said resolutions at a special meeting
to be held on Tuesday afternoon, March seven, at four
o'clock.

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MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS AND
ADDRESSES.

In the Senate,
Tuesday March 7, 1911.

AFTERNOON SESSION.
The time of recess having elapsed, the Senate was
called to order at four o'clock post meridian, the
President Pro Tempore, Mr. Crow, in the chair.

PRAYER.

Prayer was offered by Reverend Harry Nelson
Bassler, as follows :

O, Lord, our God, Thou dost lead us in wonderful
ways and at this time Thou hast led us in the presence
of death by calling from time to eternity one who has
walked by our side, one who has shared our joys and
sorrows and labored with us in the performance of our
duties ; we bless Thee for his memory ; we thank Thee
for his stay here. May we exemplify in our short stay
here all that was true and beautiful and good within
him. May we all so live that some day we with him
may have a triumphant entrance through the gates into
the city. Remember, O Lord, this afternoon those who
bow beneath this great sorrow ; those who stand alone
with the great cold world before them. Pour the oil of
gladness upon the troubled waters of their souls; be
with us in the future duties of life ; remember no more
our transgressions, and shortcomings; take away all
that is sinful and weak within us and finally accept us,
we ask it, in Jesus' name and for Jesus' sake. Amen.

MR. WILBERT. Mr. President, I offer the fol-
lowing resolutions :

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Memorial Services.

RESOLUTIONS.

Whereas, It has pleased the Arbiter of Life on June
30, 1909, to remove from among us our respected friend
and esteemed associate, the Honorable John W.
Crawford, Senator from the Forty-fifth District; and
Whereas, This body desires to enter its testimony
of its respectful regard for him as a citizen and as-
sociate as a Senator of Pennsylvania;

Therefore, Be it Resolved, That the Senate of Penn-
sylvania hereby records its high estimate of our late
associate as a citizen, a legislator, and a man;

Resolved, That in the death of Senator Crawford,
the county of Allegheny has lost one of its most
honored and substantial citizens, the Senate of Penn-
sylvania a most faithful and efficient member, the pub-
lic welfare an earnest advocate and we, his associates,
a genial companion and a warm and sympathizing
friend ;

Resolved, That we tender to his family our sincere
and heartfelt sympathy in the irreparable loss which
they have sustained by this invasion by death of their
circle ;

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions signed
by the President and attested by the clerk be sent
to the family of the deceased.

DAVID A. WILBERT.
WILLIAM C. SPROUL,
JAMES P. McNICHOL,
JOHN E. FOX,
OSCAR E. THOMSON,
DANIEL P. GERBERICH,
JAMES K. P. HALL,
STERLING R. CATLIN.

Hon. John W. Crawford.

On the question,

Will the Senate agree to the resolutions?

ADDRESSES.

Mr. WILBERT. Mr. President, The saddest and
most mournful duty that I have been called upon to
perform since becoming a member of this body, is that
which I now undertake, in speaking upon the death of
our lamented fellow-member, the Honorable John W.
Crawford, whose death occurred June 30, 1909, while
not wholly unexpected, yet came as a great blow to his
vast army of friends, supporters and admirers.

It was my privilege and my pleasure to know John
Crawford intimately and well, and perhaps better than
did any other member of the Senate, and this not only
for the reason that we hailed from the same county,
but because we lived together during our joint sojourn
in Harrisburg ; and the result of my intimacy with him
was the creation of feelings of respect and friendship
which never diminished, but on the contrary, in-
creased from the first day of our acquaintance to the
day we parted by the dire decree of death. I am not
by any means the sole witness of the endurance of his
friendship, for in my intercourse with other members
of the Senate, I have found a great void has been left
by his taking off, and that his cheerful smile, his hearty
handshake and genial personality will be sorely missed.
He was one of those men, who, where he had promoted
an acquaintance to the class of friend, believed that he
should be clasped to his soul with hoops of steel.

John Crawford was a many-sided man, and in the
discharge of his duties as a member of this Senate, he
gave a conscientious attention to all character of legis-
lation that was brought here for consideration and ac-

10 Memorial Services.

tion. If there was one species of legislative work to
which he gave more attention than any other, it was to
that which dealt with State aid to charitable and edu-
cational institutions. His disposition was kind and
sympathetic, and he naturally turned to any movement
to aid the needy and helpless. It was as natural for
John Crawford to help a fellow-being in distress as it is
for water to flow downward, and I sincerely believe
that in his whole lifetime he did not refuse assistance
to a worthy object of charity, and a multitude of doubt-
ful ones were the recipients of his personal bounty,
and thus it was that, as a member of the Senate, he
gave much attention to the matter of appropriations
to public charities. But he did not neglect his other
duties, and I think I can say without exaggeration that
when he died, John Crawford was one of the hardest
working and best equipped men in this body.

His private life was pure. He was a good son, a lov-
ing brother, and a high-minded citizen. In a word, he
was a man in the full and complete sense. When John
Crawford departed this life, his family lost a loving
brother, this Senate a distinguished member, and the
State an upright, honest and brave subject.

MR. SPROUL. Mr. President, I am glad to have
an opportunity of saying a few informal words out of
respect to the memory of this Senator with whom I
had a long and very pleasant association here. John
Crawford was the last of those remaining who were in
the Senate of Pennsylvania when I came here and I
find myself now here alone among all of those who sat
in the session of 1897. The vicissitudes of politics and
the change of death have removed one by one all of
the men who took part in this body at that time. For
several years John Crawford and myself were the only

Hon. John W. Craicford. 11

remaining members of that session, and I felt that con-
nection, and I also felt that close, warm, personal
friendship for the man who had all the good qualities
which his friend and colleague has so feelingly spoken
of. He had that great saving grace of charity ; he had
toleration for other men's beliefs and opinions; he did
not think that a man was eternally wrong in this world
and the next because he did not hold exactly the view
regarding matters of the present day that he did, but
he met people half way in any worthy proposition and
tried to do the very best that he could with the op-
portunity and means at his hands. Taken away in the
middle of his career, taken away at a time when he
should have had a great many years of usefulness be-
fore him, it was not vouchsafed to him to live and
have the death that I find in this little verse which
someone, certainly a man with a fine sentiment, ex-
presses :

"So be my passing !

My task accomplished and the long day done.

My wages taken and in my heart

Some late lark singing,

Let me be gathered to the quiet west,

The sundown splendid and serene.

Death !"

As I say, it was not given to John Crawford with all
his worth of heart and way of kindliness and regard for
others, to live beyond the middle of an ordinary life,
and yet he goes away more lamented and leaving be-
hind him a better monument of good work well done
than many a man who has lived twice his years.

MR. FOX. Mr. President,

"His life was gentle ; and the elements

So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up

And say to all the world, 'This was a man!'"

12 Memo rial Services.

Senator Crawford was a member of this body when
I entered it ten years ago and during the whole of our
period here together I enjoyed the valued fortune of
his sincere friendship and his departure is keenly felt.

It is the pride and boast of our truly Republican in-
stitutions that they give to every individual an op-
portunity to demonstrate w^hat is in him. Senator
Crawford by his energy, his honesty and his industry,
born of humble parentage and in poverty, by his own
work rose to a position of plenty and a position of
honor in this Commonwealth.

As a man he exemplified the best qualities. He was
truthful, honest and courageous.

As a citizen he always welcomed responsibilities and
faithfully discharged his obligations.

The preeminent trait in his character was sincerity
and fidelity to his friends. And who can possess any
trait more admirable. How superior is the man who
possesses it and how inferior is the man who has it not !
I shall ever remember, when at the close of our last
session, as a token of the high esteem in which this
body held him for his labor and character, it made a
presentation to him, how he appreciated and cherished
the kindly feelings then expressed by his fellow-mem-
bers.

His life will endure with those who knew him, for
knowing him they loved him. It will endure with
those who knew the nobility of his mind and the kind-
ness of his heart. The Angel of Peace which men call
death has taken our brother and we grieve that he has
gone. He had won our applause by his fairness and
our affection by his nature of lovableness.

My fellow-Senators, the rapid passing of members
of this body leaves upon us a deep and ineffaceable im-

Hon. John W. Crawford. 13

pression of the importance of a good and kind life,
therefore

"Build thee more stately mansions, Oh my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,

Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell hy life's unreasting sea!"

MR. WILBERT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous
consent for Chancellor Samuel B. McCormick of the
University of Pittsburgh, John W. Crawford's warm
personal friend, to be heard on this occasion.

THE PRESIDENT. Is there objection? The Chair
hears none.

Mr. McCORMICK. Mr. President and Senators,
Born in Mifflin Township, at Duquesne, April 25, 1861.
Educated in public schools and at California Normal.
As business man was in Real Estate, broker and
banker — President of the First National Bank of Du-
quesne.

As public servant, first burgess of his town, member
of council and from 1896 to his death, in his fourth
term, member of the Senate.

He died on June 30, 1909, and was laid to rest in the
cemetery at McKeesport, near his home, on July 2,
1909.

How utterly inadequate such a record in telling the
story of a life. My only qualification for discharging
the duty you have courteously assigned me is that I
knew him and that I loved him. He was just such a
man as the others of us here, wnth all the faults and
frailties and sins which belong to us all, but withal
he was a man and you who knew him too, and talked
and laughed with him, agreed and disagreed with

14 Memorial Services.

him, you loved him too and you and I mourn him to-
day as a companion who walked with us a little while
along the way and then was not — for God took him.

When I heard that he was in the hospital and had
just submitted to a critical operation I hurried out to
see him. There he lay, weak with the suffering
through which he had passed, yet content, smiling,
serene, confident. Curiously I had no thought that he
was in any danger. I was for two weeks in Colorado
and returning found him where I left him. I had no
warning that we might lose him. Through that lovely
June he lay patient, uncomplaining; yet I saw not the
angel that hovered over him nor dreamed that the
shadow of the dark wings was even then falling upon
him. And when the end came and the word was
flashed forth that John W. Crawford was dead, my
heart stood still and I wondered why my eyes were
holden that I saw not and my ears dull of hearing
that I heard not the moving of the presence which
during those weeks was only waiting until the final
hour was come.

He was my brother and I loved him. I have never
sought to understand; but during the months since
then, again and again, the memory of him has come,
joy that he had come with my life, gladness for his
friendship, gratitude for his loyal steadfastness; but
a great sadness that he had one day slipped out and
while I sought him yet found him not nor saw him
ever again among the living. Only for a few have I
thus mourned, and the grief is as real and as poignant
to-day as it was on that afternoon in the early summei;
time when we laid him to rest in God's acre on the
hillside over which his feet had often passed in the
days of his boyhood.

It was first of all, I think, because he was a man.

Eon. John W. Crawford. 15

It is not easy to assume virtues which one does not
actually possess. If a man is not real, the evidence
is not long wanting. Manhood is self-revealing. Char-
acter doesn't need an interpreter. It is as unmistak-
able as the rose in the garden. The biggest thing a
real man does is the creation of himself. That speaks
more loudly than any word he utters or act he per-
forms. It always sounds true. Senator Crawford was
a man. Once a lawyer said to me "I have been doing
legal work for John Crawford at intervals for twenty-
five years and in all that time I never knew him to de-
part from the strictest integrity. If he makes a
•promise he keeps it. If he states a fact it is true. If
he gives an obligation he makes it good. He can be
depended upon in every situation and under any pres-
sure of circumstance. In every fibre of his being he
is honest. I believe in him for I know him through
and through."

That is the quality of tried manhood. At the time
that conversation took place John W. Crawford was,
as were all business men just then, passing through the
fires. The panic of 1907 had swept over the country
and produced uneasiness and financial distress. Banks
were going to pieces. Distrust was everywhere. Money
was withdrawn from circulation. Business was put
under a tremendous strain. Fortunes were taking
wings. No one could foresee the outcome. The Pitts-
burgh Stock Exchange of which Senator Crawford
was president was closed. But no man ever doubted
John W. Crawford. No man had thought that he
would fail to stand up under the storm which beat
upon him. Tranquil, confident, true, he stood firm,
believing no less in his neighbor and trusting no less
in the worth and integrity of his fellows. That is a

16 Memorial Services.

test of manhood. It determines whether the tim-
bers of the vessel are sound. It reveals what-
ever weakness may lurk in the character. It turns the
inside of the man out so that the world may know him
for what he is. John Crawford stood the test. He
rose above obstacles. He met difficulties with bravery.
He complained not nor doubted. He was cheery
and confident. He was himself true and trusted that
quality in others. Manhood is what the world ad-
mires. Because he had it we trusted him and because
he was gentle we loved him.

I think that we all recognized another quality with-
out which no eulogy could be pronounced this day.
That quality was loyalty to his duty in the realm of
public service. He was not neglectful of his own af-
fairs. Like other men he devoted himself to business.
Like other men he desired to accumulate wealth. But
John W. Crawford had ideals far higher than to be a
successful man of affairs. Whether he knew it or not
his real ambition was to touch the lives of his fellows
beneficently, to give himself prodigally to the service
of the State. It was not financially profitable for him
to be burgess of his borough, to serve on the council,
to represent his district in this honorable body. It cost
him countless thousands of dollars to do it. He did it
because it was his high conception of civic duty. It is
the glory of our country that, in the political life of our
nation, there are hundreds and thousands of John W.
Crawfords in the halls of our State Legislature who
are rendering self denying service as he did, just as it
is the shame of our country that their motives are often
impugned, their characters aspersed, their actions mis-
represented and their loyalty to state and nation tra-
duced into selfishness and personal gain. When will
America learn to honor the men who represent the

Eon. John W. Crawford. 17

people, to put them on an eminence from which they
themselves only can cast them down so that they will
honor both themselves and the nation and so that the
few who are base and selfish and sordid, and therefore
unable to remain in that pure and high eminence, may
be distinguished from the many who are rendering
loyal and patriotic service. I think that one reason
why we all loved Senator Crawford was that he cared
so little for himself and cared so much for us and for
the larger body of his fellows who constitute the State.
With what measure of ability he had, with the good-
ness of heart and bigness of generous manhood which
was his, he gave himself without stint to the service
of the people.

After all this is life. It is also the only real prepara-
tion for death. To live is joy when life is service.
*'To know, to love, to achieve, to triumph, to confer
happiness, to alleviate misery, is rapture." To live
forever when service has been conscientious is our
sublimest hope. To be calm in trial, to be hopeful in
day of gloom, to be steadfast in the day of adversity,
to be strong, brave, true, always — these are the quali-
ties of a great soul. These John W. Crawford pos-
sessed. Hence we loved him when he walked among
us and hence, too, we mourn him to-day. He sleeps
on the hillside within sight of the spot where he was
born. We leave him there in the care of Him who is
Friend and Father of us all.

When, centuries before the Christ,. King Argos,
about to die, met the frenzied question of the wife of
his heart as to whether they should meet again, he re-
plied:

18 Memorial Services.

"I have asked that dreadful question of the hills
That look eternal ; of the flowing steams
That lucid flow forever; of the stars,
Amid whose field of azure my raised Spirit
Hath trod in glory; all were dumb; but now,
While I thus gaze upon thy living face,
I feel the love that kindles through its beauty
Can never wholly perish. We shall meet again."

Where man cannot know he rises into the higher
realm where trust may quiet his heart and guide his
steps and where he may commit himself to the eternal
arms and sink into them, brave, manly, courageous to
the last, as the weary child gives itself to the gentle
arms of motherhood and falls asleep. The courage of
trust is the divinest courage of all ; and he who in his
journey between the two eternities has smiled and
toiled, has stretched out his hand to help, has spoken
encouragement and hope, has sought to bless his fel-
lows and serve his God, that man may look serenely
into the frowning face of death and meet the dread
coming with a smile. So your friend and mine passed
out upon the sea and set sail for the land of eternal
day, trusting in the God of his fathers and splendidly
unafraid. Were he present to-day to tell us what to
say he would first of all bid us to be silent; to utter no
word of eulogy ; to speak no word of praise ; but if we
must speak his words would be those of Tennyson —

"Sunset and Evening Star,

And one clear call for me !
And may there be no moaning of the bar,

When I put out to sea.

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,

Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep

Turns again home.

Hon. John W, Grawfofdi '

?ie^

Twilight and evening bell,

And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,

When I embark ;

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place

The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face

When I have crost the bar."

And the question recurring,
Will the Senate agree to the resolutions ?
The yeas and nays were taken, and were as follov/s,
viz:

Yeas— 50.

Adams ,

Heacock,

Kurtz,

Shields,

Alexander,

Herbst,

Manbeck ,

Snyder,

Baldwin,

Homsher ,

Martin,

Sones ,

Buckman ,

Huffman,

McConnell,

Sproul ,

Catlin,

Hunter,

Mcllhenny,

Thomson ,

Clark,

Jamison ,

McNichol,

Vare,

Cooper,

Jarrett,

McNichols ,

Washers ,

DeWitt,

Jones,

Miller,

Weingartner,

Endsley,

Judson ,

Morgan ,

Wertz,

Fox,

Keyser,

Nulty,

Wilbert,

Gerberich ,

Kline,

Powell,

Wolf,

Hall,

Knapp,

Salus ,

Crow,

Hays,

Pres. pro tem.

Nays — 0.

All the Senators having voted "aye" the resolutions
were unanimously agreed to.

ADJOURNMENT.

Mr. SPROUL. Mr. President, I move the Senate
do now adjourn.

Mr. FOX. Mr. President, I second the motion.

The motion was agreed to.

At four thirty post meridian the Memorial proceed-
ings were completed and the Senate adjourned until
ten o'clock ante meridian, March 8, 1911.

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