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Show YOUTH NOT ALWAYS BAR TO SENATORSHIP Although the Constitution provides that no person under the age of thirty years can serve as a United States senator the pro-visionhas pro-visionhas not always been rigidly enforced. Attention was called again to it recently when Senator Robert La Follette, Jr., succeeded his father in the senate. The younger La Follette was just ten months over the minimum age when he was sworn in as senator and is the fifth youngest man to sit in the senate. But Henry Clay was less than thirty years of age when he first ?ook the senatorial orth of office. Th-2 date was November 19, 1 806, and he was at the time just twenty-nine years seven months and seven days old. When the question was asked as to whether he was old enough to sit in the senate, Clay replied: "I hope my colleague will propound that question to my constituents." con-stituents." Nothing further was said about it, and Clay's constituents constitu-ents were not consulted. Had they been, the answer would undoubtedly un-doubtedly have been in his favor as Clay was Kentucky's hero for nearly half a century. But others have qualified for a seat in the senate who were even younger than Clay. They were Armstead Thomson Mason of Virginia, aged twenty-eight years, five months and thirty days when he took his seat on January 3, 1816; Elias Kent Kane of Illinois, aged twenty-eight years, eight months 'and twenty-eight clays when he was sworn in on March 4, i32'5, and Stephen Wa) lace Dorsey of Arkansas, who was sworn in on March 4, 1873, at the age of twenty-nine years and seven days. I |