Of all the Senators who sat in the last session of Congress the one least liked by his colleagues was undoubtedly the late Huey Long. Had a secret vote for that distinction been taken, a runner-up to the Louisiana “Kingfish” would probably have been blind Senator Thomas David Schall of Minnesota. He was so unmeasured in his attacks on President Roosevelt, his wife and family, that even the sternest opponents of the New Deal shivered. But just as Senators were shocked by the assassination of Democrat Huey Long, so last week they were shocked by the tragedy that befell Republican Tom Schall.
Driving one evening from his office in the Capitol to his home at Berwyn Heights, Md., he recollected that he had an errand at a grocery store. At his request the automobile was stopped at Cottage City, a mile beyond the District of Columbia boundary. Orel Leen, a member of his office staff, guided the sightless Senator across the street to a store. They were on their way back when another car came zipping out of the dark, ran them down. Smash! Broken glass littered the pavement as Driver Lester G. Humphries stopped his car, was arrested for reckless driving. Mr. Leen lay at the side of the road with a fractured skull. Senator Schall lay unconscious in the centre of the highway with a shattered leg, a battered head, internal injuries. Three days later in Washington’s Casualty Hospital, he died without ever having regained consciousness.
In 1907 Lawyer Tom Schall was blinded by a shock from an electric cigar lighter which paralyzed his optic nerve. Not until 1914, however, did he enter politics, a career in which blindness was to prove an asset rather than a liability. For ten years he sat in the House. Minnesota elected him to the Senate in 1924.
In spite of his blindness. Senator Schall used to ride horseback frequently in Washington’s suburbs, used to cross Washington streets freely with a trained police dog as guide. Last week, unaccompanied by horse or hound, he trusted to human guidance, was struck down to death.
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