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Show SENATOR RALSTON OF 1111 OIES SENATOR HAS HAD EVENTFUL CAREER; SERVED HIS STATE AS GOVERNOR Body Taken To Lebanon, His Old Home Town For Burial; Death Was Expected And Relatives Were Present Indiianapolis, Ind. Samuel M. Ralston, Ral-ston, 67, junior United States senator sena-tor from Indiana, and venerated patriarch pa-triarch of Indiana Democracy, died at his estate, "Hoosier Home," near here after an illness of six weeks. Death came to the senator after twenty-two hours of unconsciousness, climaxing an attack of uraemic poisoning poi-soning which had confined the sena-to sena-to to his bed since September 5, and which had impaired his health since early this year. Members of his family and more than a score of intimate friends were gathered at the home to receive the news, that death had come. Senator Ralston had known for some weeks of his condition and bade his family and friends farewell before lapsing into the coma which preceded his death. Mine runner in his early youth, Ralston farmed and taught school before be-fore turning to the study of law, which opened a political career for him and brought him in 1912 to the governorship of Indiana and in 1922 to the United States senatorship. After four years in the governor's chair, Ralston had retired from politics, poli-tics, and it was only at the behest of close friends that he returned to the arena in 1922 as the party's nominee nom-inee against Albert J. Beveridge, Republican Re-publican candidate, who had defeated defeat-ed Senator Harry New, now Postmaster Postmast-er general in the primaries. Ral-ston's Ral-ston's victory gave an impetus to Indiana In-diana Democracy, which put him forward for-ward last year as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. nomina-tion. At the New York convention . in 1924 his fortunes were in the hands of Thomas Taggart, Democratic leader lead-er and long time personal friend of the senator, who insisted in presentation presen-tation of his name over Ralston's own strenuous objection. When it appeared that his nomination would offer an egress from the McAddo-Smith McAddo-Smith deadlock, however, and support began to rally to him, Ralston immediately im-mediately ordered withdrawal of hir, name, confiding to Taggart- that his health was so precarious as to preclude pre-clude the possibility of a strenuous campaign. For several years Senator Ralston's health had not been sound and he had been compelled to abandon the rugged outdoor life which he had led since boyhood. As late as last July, however, he made trips to his farms, of which he was in active management manage-ment until late summer. Several weeks ago physicians told him that his life depended upon his remaining remain-ing in bed, and he failed rapidly after af-ter he learned that he would be bedfast. bed-fast. Senator Ralston was a lifelong Presbyterian, and revered because of the genial honesty and sincerity which he radiated. A man of powerful power-ful build, he was known both as governor gov-ernor and senator for the vigor with which he labored, and he was seldom absent from a session of the senate until he was stricken last spring by what developed into his last illness. Surviving him are the widow, a daughter and two sons, a brother, a sister and a nephew, all of Indianapolis. |