New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1862-05-26
ruE MILEAGE OF CONGRESS.

of the MILEAGE of the last and the present
Congresses respectiyely-that Is, Of the number
of miles which each Member Of the House is
supposed to travel. and ia paid for travelling
in passing from his place of residence 10 wash
ington. For each mile 90 Travelled, no is paid
forty cents at each session, with like sum
for returning 10 bis home at the close OF such
session, though many, it is known, 90 not
actually return. but very properly remain ID
or near Washington from one sessions end 70
the commencement of the next. Thus the
three Members aud one Delegate from the
State of Oregon aud the Territory OF Washing
ton will claim and receive nearly S25, Tor
an imaginary journey home and back between
the close of ono session and the opening oil
another though none of them really make the
Journey, and they are paid for their full time
at the rate of $1,000 per annum. When the
compensation Of Congress vas raised from -
for each day of actual service to $1,000 per an
mum, we were assured that the Mileage should
DO reduced and the shameful abuses connected
herewith corrected; but these assurances have
not yet been fulfilled, though six years have
elapsed since they were made. Is it not time
There is a most righteous provision of law
on the statute. books importing that whenever
it would be better for the Treasury to pay a
member SIS per day for the interim between
his first and second session than to pay HIM
the Mileage for his actual or supposed journey
home and back again during that interval, he
shall be paid the 81 per day and no Mileage.
This provision, We are confident, was never
repealed, unless by some sly indirection; yet,
to the best Of our knowledge and belief, 1t has
never been regarded, although it would often
have saved to the Treasury not less than
$50, coo unjustly taken from it.
The House has always had Committee on
Mileage. whose express duty it is to compute
aud determine tho amount to which each Mem
Der is entitled, and see that no one is paid
more than the law allows Successive Com
mittees have systematically sbirhed this duty,
contentng themselves with asking each Mem
Der 10 state the number Of miles for which he
ought to be paid, and putting these together
"
paid If, then, any member IL exposed as
taking more than his due, he says he bad moth
ing to do with 1.-THE Committee made out bis
Mileage and be took what they said was his
due; while the Committee IL cornered, can
tru,hfuy plead that their estimate Of Mileage
was based on the Members own statement Of
the number Of miles for which he was entitled
to be paid.
The Committee Of the present House has,
we believe, done its duty. Whoever chooses
to scrutinize and compare the two lists here.
with published will find that the aggregate
Mileage is considerably less than for the same
States and Districts in the last Congress, and
that some Members Of both the past aud pres
ent receive considerably less than they have
hitherto done. So far, We render our thanks
to Messrs. Robinson, (lll.), Killinger, Frank,
Order, and Wood. who compose that Com.
mittee.
/ But the radical vice Of he system remains.
and We do not remember that the CommitteE
has ever reported bill to correct it. as they
ought long since to have done. The wrong OF
allowing each Member to charge his Mileage
" BY the usually travelled route" instead Of by
a Decline, or by the most direct ma-route, is
very gross, and is only to be corrected BY
change Of the lava change which rests
wholly in the discretion Of Congress. Let US
once more elucidate its essential iniquity:
DR.. Bsrnhise, the delegate from Utah, 10
entitled to Mileage for 2,450 miles, or 81 $50
per regular session, which is certainly fair if
not even generous. Judge Cradlebaugh rep
resents Nevada Territory, and lives in Carson
Valley, at the outside seven hundred miles west
Of Salt Lake City, DR.. Bernbisels home. A
good mail.stage is run daily on that Overland
Route, ut heavy expense to tho Government,
and Judge c. might come to Washington by it
conycnlent-as it certainly is in his case more
proftable-to cross the Sierra Nevada west
ward to California, take steamship at San
FranciscO to Panama, cross the Isthmus and
take another steamship to New-York, and hence
by railroad to WashingtOn-a journey which
may cost him (bOth Ways $1,000 at the out
side and less than months time, for which
time he is paid compensation at the rate Of
$4,000 per annum. lie is paid for travelling
6,332 miles each way, or $5,O65 70 for u
journey he does really make from Carson Valley
to Washington and back again (assumng that
he does 60 back at tho end of bis term aud
like sum Of $5,O65 20 for journey he might
but does not make homo and back again be-
tween his two regular sessions. This makes