The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1859-05-27

80 OOA0zVo0AOW0t 8RVK2V4k00Us
A contemporary Indignantly exclsims,
what vile world that must be in which
the nobIsst and most disinterested actions
are precisely those most liable to nniscon-
structioni We will not say that oap is
such world, but il IL were, how lofty
would be the moral courage Of him who
would undertake to become the apologist
of the Thirty-Fifth Congress! A Congress
condemned for it's extravaganza by all
classes and BY all parties. A Congress,
now that II has ceased to exist, singled
out from eli others AZ the mark for the
slow unmoving finger of public scorn.-
A dead lion spurned by the heels Of all
asses. Would he not be bold indeed and
worthy Of all praise who should lift his
voice in extenuation of such Congress?
But let us sec. Let us patiently and i'm
partially examine a few of the almost in
Vulnerable charges brought against the
unhappy, but now happily defunct, body.
1t is asserted in round terms that the
members Of Congress receive too much
pay-that they have constituted them
selves appraisers of their own work have
appraised it at an enormous figure, and
appropriated payment, if not without
authority Of law, at least without sbad-
ow Of consultation, with their masters,
the people. These, indeed, like all 9TH
err masters, are apt to underrate services
performed. apdlsyye, perhaps, me, matter
might be dismissed for "the servant is
worthy Of his hire" and ought to be a
better judge of the arduousness of his
labor than any one else. But the figures
are rather startling. Three thousand dol
lars ayear with mileage and the ranking
privilege does not seem to be an inordi-
nate price for the highest lido we not mean
"noblest" by "highest?') sort of labor
legislative labor. Yet, when we come
to multiply the pay, mileage and franking
privilege of a single member by 800 1.-THE
number of members in both Houses) and
find that the sum total foots up Fsye Ml-
ions, Eighty-three Thousand Five Hundred
and TWcnty-threc Dollars, the revelation is
rather startling. Still, if we look little
closely into the matter, do we not find
that the chill which strikes us in contem-
plating this tremendous sum total, arises
from the fact that we are accustomed to
handle only small sums of money, and
have not sufficiently estimated the value
of the services of gentleman! 1t is
true that this gentleman spends but a
small part of his time in Washington, and
while there does not, as a general thing,
do great deal of manual labor. But we
must remember that occasionally, as in
the case of the Sumner Brooks difficulty,
the Keitt-Grow shindy, and the Craig
Helper row, the member of Congress is
called upon to do actual physical labor,
and hard labor at that. Nor should it be
forgotten that though the member spends
but brief portion of his time in the
public service, the remainder is almost
entirely consumed in patriotic efforts to
continue in that service, SO that, in point
of fact, while he is in Washington only
ninety daXS the rest of the year is spent
in the very faudable attempt to do 1.-THE
public good" by keeping his muoh-covet-
ed place. And when we see three hun
dred great men struggling there from
year to year, what are Five Millions of
Dollars--what a pitiful trife to reward
struggles 50 incessant of gentlemen so
eminent!
But there is way of looking at this
subject, which is not only startling but
astounding. Divide S5,Os3, 1923 by 300, we
have as 2he annual cost Of member Of Con-
gress the snug fale Am Of sl6,954,O5, which
is rather comfortable" Yes, rather COM
Portable. But is it not our business to
make our great men comfortable? Surely
it is. But the question is asked, "how
does all this money go~ Deduct the
$1,000 which the Congressman pockets
from SIC, 954, 05, there remain nearly $l4,-
900. What becomes of it? Let US, APP
proach the question calmly. The sum is
considerable, but we need not be nervous.
1t appears that this $4,000 per member
is spent in Contingencies" term not
very ineligible until translated into such
words as Correspondence, post offices,
postmasters, pages, clerks, managers, wri-
ting paper, horses, police, newspapers,
carryalls, hacks, snuff, documents, buffalo
combs, binding, toilet soap, fuel, mirrors,
oil, velvet carpets, folding, looking glass
es, black kid gloves and miscellaneous"
Altogether, it viii be seen, at least we hope
it will be seen, that with the aid of the
items above given, aided to "miscellane-
ous," the $4,000 which each Congress
man does not exactly pocket may easily
be FILTERED away. And why not? Will
any patriotic and sensible citizen dare I'M
this free and enlightened county to az
firm that $i4. d5o1 k1eo snach to expend
in gratifying the tastes of congressman
We trust not.
But what would the people have2 Do
they desire the ''assepbled wisdom" to
gather together in howell instead of the
marble capitol TO squst like Indians on
the bare ground and not sit upon chairs
costing SS5 apiece 10 look at their faces
in pail of water instead of French
mirror worth $1,000; never to comb their
heads nor u,ash thar faoae vayar r;da