“Now William Tyler Page was the Minority Clerk. He, anonymously, wrote ‘The American’s Creed,’ which won first place in a national competition for an American creed. And for years, long before you would remember, every Congressman got a huge supply of ‘The American’s Creed,’ and they would distribute them to schoolchildren all over the country, by the millions. And William Tyler Page was a splendid man. He had that claw-hammered coat, you know. He dressed a fashion—a formality—100 years earlier. But he and Senator [Clyde] Hoey continued to do this into the 20th century. I enjoyed visiting with William Tyler Page. And I must confess, if I ever had an ambition in the process of my career—and I didn’t really have very many, because I thought how unrealistic it was for me to presume that fate might favor me that way, and I wasn’t kidding myself—but I so admired William Tyler Page and his knowledge of Congress that, yes, I said, ‘Gee, wouldn’t it be wonderful to follow in his footsteps.’ And so I must say, when I finally was elected to that job, it had much more significance for me than many people knew.”
Joe Bartlett, April 7, 2006

Image courtesy of Joe Bartlett, provided by Office of History and Preservation, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives