4pQonT

EZRA POUND 199
Holden Tinkham, who is referred to as "Uncle George" in the
Cantos. 52 He had met Tinkham years ago in Europe, for Tinkham,
the only bearded member of Congress, usually went abroad at
campaign time and let his opponent talk himself into defeat. As a
visiting Congressman, he had been allowed to fire the first American
shot against the Austrians when the United States went to war
against the Central Powers in 1917. Pound mentions in the Cantos
that he and Uncle George tried to find the exact spot, years later,
but the road had been blown off the mountainside.
A descendant of a Mayflower family, Tinkham represented the
11th Massachusetts District—including Newton and the fashionable
Back Bay—from 1915 to 1943, when he retired. He was a
colorful figure in Washington, and his office was filled with mementoes
of his travels, including stuffed heads of game animals,
African shields, and a picture of himself from a London newspaper.
This last was an item listing the ten most prominent
Negroes in America. Tinkham's name was among them, because
one of his constituents had put him down as an honorary member
of a Negro group in Boston. Tinkham found amusement in his
visitors' reaction to this item.
Despite the fact that he enjoyed being a member of the ruling
class, Tinkham accomplished some noteworthy acts during his
terms of service. It was he who noticed the clause in the League
of Nations bill that would have caused us to abnegate our
sovereignty. He immediately rushed to Senator Henry Cabot
Lodge's office, and told him about it. As Ezra describes the occasion
in the Cantos, "and he knew there'd be one hell of a fight in
the Senate." Lodge was subsequently memorialized as the man
who led the fight against the bill and defeated it, winning for himself
the title of the "founder of isolationism", or some such term.
Tinkham also made an amazing prediction in 1934, which was
noted by the press, and quickly forgotten. He declared that Roosevelt's
recovery program would be a complete failure, and that the
President would have to take us into war in order to cover up his
failure. As Herbert Hoover pointed out, after the event, in the
third volume of his Memoirs, this is exactly what happened.
Tinkham did approve of one Roosevelt deed—repeal. He was
one of the most steadfast fighters against prohibition.