THE CABINET: Singing Secretary

Gwaed y groes sy’n codi fyni R’eiddil yn goncwerwr mawr Gwaed y groes sydd yn ddarostwng Gewri cedyrn ffyrdd I llawr Gad m’i deimlo Awel o galfaria fryn* So sang Secretary of Labor James John Davis one night last week over the radio from Washington. It was an old, old hymn which his mother Esther used to sing to him as a little boy in Wales, whence he emigrated to Pittsburgh 48 years ago. Grym y groes (The Power of the Cross) is the favorite song of all Welsh revivals. The Singing Secretary of Labor sang in Welsh for two reasons: i) The song had never been translated into English; 2) at Sharon, Pa., before his radio set sat David James Davis, 80, harkening with vast delight to his son’s cheerful voice. And before their radio sets throughout the land sat many other Welshmen. Next day at Cabinet meeting Secretary Davis announced: “Apparently most of the two million Welshmen in the U. S. heard me and every mother’s son of ’em sent me a telegram.” Singer-Secretary Davis was asked for his own translation of his hymn. He begged off, said he was too busy. His friend Rev. Robert Perry of Washington supplied what he termed a ”very free translation”: The Blood of the Cross the weak exalteth, More than conquerors to be; The Blood of the Cross the strong abaseth; Myriad hosts to bow to Thee; Oh, revive me With breezes from Calvary.

“Composed by William Williams (Pantycelyn), the “Isaac Watts” of Wales, the latter part of the 18th Century.