National Affairs: Youngest

The youngest member of Congress is George Hamilton Combs Jr., a minister’s son from Missouri. Now aged 29, he represents the 367,846 inhabitants of Jackson County. He is a Democrat. Last week he arose in the House to make one of his infrequent speeches. It was a speech addressed to his fellow Democrats, whom he flayed roundly for their post-election faultfinding with National Democratic Chairman John J. Raskob.

Youngest Democrat Combs had this much to say: “For eight years we [Democrats] have been wobbling along without leadership and without clearly visioned policy. For the first time in eight years the Democratic party has had vitality, it has had aggressiveness, it has had that which makes for an intelligent and for an aggressive campaign leadership. I do not believe that any of us feel that the business man has any monopoly on virtue, or that a man taken from the ranks of business is necessarily holier or more pious than the man who comes from the ranks of politics, yet I do know that we shall be rendering this country a tremendous disservice if we penalize every man who seeks to render an honorable and disinterested service by criticizing him for those acts which he undertakes in the public weal.”