ABSTRACT
This chapter presents James M. Cannon's life and career within the context of current scholarship on the progressive era and the institutional development of Congress and provides a more complete and balanced picture of the former Speaker. The brakeman image is a useful metaphor to describe Cannon's congressional leadership. He was not inclined or prepared to lead the House into the twentieth century but attempted instead to suspend it in time. On March 5, 1911, the former "czar," Uncle Joe Cannon, turned over the Speaker's gavel to Champ Clark. The Democratic House, with Clark's blessing, further reduced the Speaker's powers when it adopted new rules in April 1911, taking away the power to appoint standing committees. At age sixty-seven, Joe Cannon was the oldest and longest-serving representative ever to be elected to the speakership. As Cannon biographer William Rea Gwinn aptly observed, Uncle Joe had reached this point in his career mainly "by long experience, close study, and persistent effort".
