WILLIAMS, lohn Sharp, United States senator: b. Memphis, Tenn., 30 July 1854. He is the descendant of one of the most distin guished of Southern families, whose founder was John Williams, member of the Continental Congress. John Sharp Williams studied at the Kentucky Military Academy, the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tenn., and at the Uni versity of Virginia. His general training was completed at the University of Heidelberg, Germany; but on his return home he studied law at the University of Virginia and privately at Memphis. In 1878 when he was only 24 years old he settled at Yazoo, Miss., where he arose immediately to eminence at the local bar. Following the bent of Southerners he also be came a landowner and planter. In the early '90s lie began to take an active interest in politics and was elected to the national House of Representatives where he remained from let)3 to 1(A19 He entered Congrrs in the midst of that trying period when all the agricultural interests of the country were sorely depressed and when 1.0x1ririK men were uniting farmers' (o-ganinitionc in the hope of weaken ing the grip of tinaticiets and industrial leaders upon the government NA iIItams was in hill sympathy with tin 11" t rt. lie was an ardent advocate of a low tarot. fit ,t an .116 (KM, of actual tree trade. lie was a member ot that group of earnest Democrats who opposed President Cleveland in 1895 when the so-called gold bonds were issued to a syndicate controlicd by Messrs. Belmont and Morgan of New York, as a means of maintaining the credit of the treasury. Mr. William Jennings Bryan was the leader of these protesting Democrats. Early in 1895 Mr. Williams signed, with Bryan and 31 other leaders of Congress and newspapermen, an address to the people which had a great in fluence upon the history of the country. It proved to be the beginning of the campaign of Mr. Bryan for the control of the Democratic National Convention of 18%. It was not only a protest against the proposed gold standard. for which Eastern men, Democratic and Repubfi can, were clamoring; it was an to inde pendent Democrats very much like that which Salmon P. Chase and others issued to the country against the famous Nebraska bill of 1854. It rallied the whole West, regardless of party, and when the Republicans met in con vention in Saint Louis, it was with great diffi culty that the party was prevented from declar ing against the gold standard. But the Demo
cratic National Convention which met in Chi cago was entirely won and Mr. Bryan was made candidate for the Presidency. Mr. wil barns was an earnest champion of free trade and free silver and as such had a large share in the extraordinary campaign in which both issues were lost. Williams continued an influential member of the House of Representatives and during the Roosevelt Presidency he was the leader of the minority, a witty, alert and force ful critic of governmental measures. Although he was never an organizer, nor a politician ex cept in the better sense, he was twice the un disputed candidate of his party for speaker The last time he offered for Congress in his dis trict, he received every vote cast But be had already made up his mind to enter the Senate It was at the tune of the growing Vardaman movement in Mississippi. Notwithstanding the popularity of Governor Vardaman. who opposed Williams, the latter easily won a seat in the Senate. The' issue was mainly the question of the negro in the State. Williams Wong the more moderate attitude that there would be Do negro question if it were left out tics. In the Senate Williams ently for a lower tariff, although he brorri Bryan and many of his earlier political friends. and in 1911 aided in the passage of the Under wood tariff which President Taft vetoed. When President Wilson entered office Williams be came a warm supporter of the great reforms, tariff, finance and income tax laws, which were made effective in 1913 and 1914, after all realis ing the purposes of the movement of DM. He was almost from the beginning of the Europese War an advocate of American interventios. and when the country entered the war he was an earnest gunnorter of the Allied cause. while his colleague from Mississippi, Senator Varda man. to,k the opposite view. In the winter of 1919 Williams was the only senator who voted against a resolution urging President Wilson to pits. the reuse of Ireland, against the wishes of the Itrittsh government. before the Parts Peace Cimicrence. He declared that Congress ,,,t niter fere in the internal relations of a tratndly power.