th
Senator Frye's declining to succeed the late Senator Davis as
chairman. Ship-subsidy and the building up of the merchant marine
of the United States were then before the Senate, and Senator Hanna,
a ship owner himself, was deeply interested in that legislation.
Senator Hanna and Senator Frye were devoted friends; and, although
I do not know, I have always felt that it was Senator Hanna who
induced Senator Frye to remain at the head of the Committee on
Commerce.

Senator Frye was a very capable and faithful Senator, and enjoyed
the confidence and respect of the people of his State to a greater
degree than any other Maine statesman, with the exception of Mr.
Blaine. As chairman of the Committee on Commerce, I would say he
dominated that committee, and at the same time he was a most
satisfactory chairman to every Senator who served on it. He was
thoroughly familiar with every question pertaining to rivers and
harbors, the shipping interests, and the multitude of matters coming
before the committee. Senator Burton, of Ohio, is probably the
only member of the United States Senate at present who is as well
posted on matters before the Committee on Commerce.

Mr. Frye was an active member of the Committee on Foreign Relations,
and during the brief periods when I have been compelled by reason
of illness to remain away from the Senate I always designated
Senator Frye to act in my stead.

Among his colleagues in the Senate, he enjoyed the greatest degree
of popularity; and aside from one or two occasions when his own
colleague opposed him, no Senator ever objected to any ordinary
bill which Senator Frye called up and asked to have placed on its
passage. In fact it was his custom to report a bill from his
committee, or the Committee on Foreign Relations, the only two
working committees of which he was a member, and ask for its
immediate consideration. No one ever objected, and the bill went
through as a meritorious measure without question, on his word
alone to the Senate.

He was an ideal presiding officer. For years he was president _pro
tempore_, and the death of Vice-President Hobart, and the accession
of Mr. Roosevelt to the Presidency, necessitated his almost constant
occupancy of the chair. With the peculiar rules existing in the
Senate, the position of presiding officer is comparatively an easy
one. Senator Frye made an especially agreeable presiding officer,
expediting the business of the Senate in a de