Speaker Longworth Takes the Gavel
When He Goes to His Seat Tomorrow He Will Begin the Task of Restoring the Prestige of the House of Representatives – A Hard Worker Who Has Taken His Career Lightly
On this week 100 years ago, Nicholas Longworth became Speaker of the House. The journalist A.H. Ulm profiled the Ohio representative in New York Times Magazine.
A notable portion of the article was about how Longworth was not expected to be a particularly consequential occupant of the legislative branch’s top political office:
But he does not propose to change radically the House’s rules or procedure, which have been so modified that the Speaker cannot make himself supreme by use of power. He no longer can maintain discipline by maouevring [sic] committee assignments or by controlling the powerful Rules Committee.
Sure enough, Longworth didn’t change things “radically” at all. But he did make at least two minor changes which the House still abides by today.
According to the government publication A Chair Made Illustrious: A Concise History of the U.S. House Speakership, Longworth established the tradition of referring to female House members with the title “the gentlewoman.” He also began the tradition of swearing in all House members simultaneously on the opening day of a new Congress, rather than individually.
However, any members sworn in during the middle of a two-year Congress are still sworn in individually – for example, someone elected to fill a vacancy caused by a member’s promotion to a presidential administration or a death. This fact was very much in the headlines recently, when Speaker Mike Johnson refused to swear in Arizona Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva for more than seven weeks.
Longworth served as Speaker for more than five years, until dying in office in 1931. Today, if he’s remembered at all, it’s likely as the namesake for one of the main congressional buildings in Washington, D.C.
Speaker Longworth Takes the Gavel: When He Goes to His Seat Tomorrow He Will Begin the Task of Restoring the Prestige of the House of Representatives – A Hard Worker Who Has Taken His Career Lightly
Published: Sunday, December 6, 1925