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194 been materially changed. One of the great improvements introduced into the new code was the prepayment of postage, at pound rates, by the publishers of newspapers and magazines, in place of the collection of postage from each individual subscriber. The first speech made in congress by Mr. Cannon related to postal affairs and was a pronounced success. From that time Mr. Cannon has been known as an interesting speaker and a keen debater. In the fifty-first, fifty-fourth, fifty-fifth, fifty-sixth, and fifty-seventh Congresses he was chairman of the committee on Appropriations, and his skill and fidelity in the performance of the exceedingly difficult duties of this responsible position were recognized and appreciated by the members of all political parties. His popularity was so great that for some time before the fifty-eighth Congress assembled, it was evident that Mr. Cannon would be its speaker. His election to this office which gives "almost autocratic power," and which in its influence upon legislation is second in importance only to that of the president of the United States, followed in due course; and he has performed its duties with great acceptability to the American people. In the expressed opinion of many members. Speaker Cannon "has done much to restore to the house the power and influence which it possessed before the senate began to infringe upon the rights and privileges of the house."

Of late he has been quite prominent in a movement to secure an extensive and much needed enlargement of the Capitol building.

Mr. Cannon was married January 4, 1862, to Mary P. Reed. They have had three children, of whom two are now living. Mr. Cannon received the degree of LL.D. from the Illinois state university. He is a member of the Union League club of Chicago. He is a Royal Arch Mason, and a member of the Knights Templar. He has never given much attention to any of the popular forms of physical culture, but has "found his principal recreation in reading the current newspapers and magazines and in rereading the books which were interesting to him in early life." The books which he found of special assistance in fitting him for his work, and in carrying it on, are the Bible, Josephus, Rollin's Ancient History, the English histories of Hume and Macaulay, Bancroft's United States History, the Life of Franklin, the works of Shakespeare, Scott, Dickens, and Thackeray; and in his law reading, Blackstone's Commentaries.