Long
Long names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Long JOHN DAVIS, an American statesman
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOHN DAVIS, an American statesman; born in Buckfield, Me., 1838. He graduated at Harvard in 1857; studied law at Harvard Law School and in private offices; was admitted to the bar in 1861; was a Republican member of the Massachusetts Legislature from 1875 to 1878; was speaker of the house 1876-1878; was lieutenant-governor of his State in 1879 and governor in 1880-1883; was elected to the 48th, 49th, and 50th Congress; was appointed by President Mc- Kinley Secretary of the Navy in 1897 and 1901. His administration of the department during the Spanish-American War was able. On the accession of President Roosevelt Mr. Long retained his office for six months, but on March 10, 1902, tendered his resignation. He resumed the practice of law and became president of the board of overseers of Harvard University. He published "The New American Navy" (2 vols., 1903). He died in 1915.
Long WALTER HUME, an English politician
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WALTER HUME, an English politician, born in 1854; was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford; from 1886 to 1892 was parliamentary secretary to the local government board; elected member of Parliament from West Derby, 1892-1900; president of the Board of Agriculture, 1895-1900; president of the local government board, 1900-1906; defeated for Parliament at Bristol in 1906; he was chosen from Dublin to represent the interests of Ulster, 1906-1910. Mr. Long was appointed chief secretary for Ireland, 1905-1906; president of the local government board, 1915-1916; secretary of state of the colonies, 1916-1918. From 1919 he held office as first lord of the admiralty.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both men were recent history when Collier's compiled this in 1921, and the biographical facts have not moved. Walter Hume Long, still First Lord of the Admiralty as the entry went to press, retired that year, was created Viscount Long of Wraxall, and died in 1924; his most consequential work came just after Collier's wrote, as chairman of the cabinet committee whose plan became the Government of Ireland Act of 1920, the partition that created Northern Ireland. John Davis Long, praised here for an "able" wartime Navy Department, is now remembered less for that than for a single afternoon off in February 1898, when his young assistant secretary Theodore Roosevelt used his absence to cable Commodore Dewey to prepare for action against the Spanish fleet at Manila. Collier's also drops his surname from the headings, listing them as "John Davis" and "Walter Hume" — a quirk of the original text, not of the men's names.
Written for this edition, 2026.