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Elder Statesman

THE CONGRESS Elder Statesman

In a Mayflower Hotel apartment in Washington lay Carter Glass, dean of the U.S. Senate. Now 87, the distinguished senior Senator from Virginia was frail and silent, enfeebled by age and long illness. Not for more than two years had he answered a roll call on the Senate floor. Virginia's junior Senator, round-faced, economy-minded Harry Byrd, had carried on for both.

Virginia's people had deep respect for Carter Glass; they knew he had a place in U.S. history. Nevertheless, last week Virginia newspapers, respectfully but almost unanimously, were urging the aged Senator to retire.

It started in the Senator's...

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President BARACK OBAMA, at NATO talks involving over 50 world leaders, describing the withdrawal of 130,000 combat troops from Afghanistan, planned for the end of 2014
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