The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-03-20
Senatorial Mileage swindles.
Washington letter to Cincinnati Gazette

Sunory gentleIueu IL tuc oonato "hoo@
notion of economy seems to be to keep
up vigorous watch npon the dropPings
at the spigot, while the great leaks at
the bunghole go unnoticed, have OF late
exhibited unwonted virtue on the subject
of resolution which the House passed
at the last session, making temporary
Increase in the pay of its own employees,
out of its own contingent fund. As to
the propriety of that resolution L have
not one word to say; but it Is worth
while to see what manner OF men these
in the Senate are, who think themselves
pure enough to enter upon the very un-
profitable business of throwing stones at
the House of representatives. The Sen
ate of the United States is. in all matters
of provision for its own comfort and con-
venience, proverbially the most extrava-
CANT legislative body in the world For
its fifty-two members it spends Sl7 900 IN
stationery. The 1872 members of the
House only ask for their whole number
$4,000! The ffty-two members of the
Senate manage to consume in session
more ice than all the 1872 members of the
House They pay their secretary $3.50
year more than the House gives its clerks;
and the clerks of their committees SD
more per week They order just four
times as many of the expensive Congress
ional globes as does the House and, to
he brief, their other expenditures are in
a similar ratio.
That they are unduly extravagant |
do not say; but it is interesting to eb-
serve that they are the parties to charge
the House of Representatives, with ex-
travagance.
Mr.. Senator Sherman has been conspic-
nous as the leader in this virtuous rigid
ity of the Senate A prying wretch, for
whom capital punishment would be too
mild a fate, thought he would look into
one or two items Of the virtuouS Sena-
tors little private account with the Gov
ernment. His first discovery was the
interesting fact that. computing his mile
age from Mansfield, Ohio, by the short
est route, the Senator has TO spend (and
draw therefore from the treasury S52O,4O
for travelling to Washington! Mr.. Will
liam johnson, a member of the House,
lives in the same tocn but manages to get
here for S440 The Senator, who is one
of the most honest men in public life,
has been too busy watching the rascali-
ty of the House i'll its expenditure OF It's
own contingent fund, to discover this
triflng leak out of the treasury into his
own pocket.
But that is a mere bagatelle. Mr..
Senator Sherman may he readily eX-
cused for a trihing, and accidental over
charge; but what shall we say of his
friend, Mr.. Senator Jim" Lane, of Kan
sas That incorruptable worthy lives
according to the Official Directory IN
the town of Lawrence. He comes from
there to Washington by the nearest
travelled route, and he swears that 1t costs
him two thousand one hundred and six
ty dollars. 1t happened that the repre-
sentative from Kansas lives i'll the same
town; but by some superior skill OF his
he manages to get here at cost to the
Government of only twelve hundred and
seventy three dollars and sixty cents.
There is another incOrruptible Senator
from the pleasant State OF Kansas,
known unto men as Mr.. Pomeroy. He
is recorded as living at Atchison, forty
fifty miles nearer Washington than Mr..
Jim" Lane, but it costs him precisely
the same $2,460, to get here, while Mr..
Wilder, the representative living back at
Lawrence can travel the extra fifty
miles and get here for nearly half the
money; or to put it accurately, for
S1,273 60!
But from the Kansas Senators nobody
would expect anything else. Iowa ought
to send men of different stamp, and it
must be that the curious facts about
their mileage need only to be called to
their economical attention to be correct
ed. Mr. Senator Grimes lives at Burling
ton, OH the Mississippi river; Mr.. Senator
Harlan lives at Mount Pleasant, just one
county west from Burlington; and Mr..
Representative Wilson, from the eXtrav-
agamt House, lives at Fairfield, just one
county west from Mt. Pleasant. Now it
curiously happens that Mr.. Senator
Grimes charges the government Sll5,a
for travelling here from Burlington; and
Mr.. Senator Harlan $l,606, 40 from Mt
Pleasant; while Mr. Representative Will
son is able to get here from Fairfield, just
beyond both the economical Senators,
for 1892 40.
Ii has been seen that Mr. Representa-
tive Wilder could get to Washington
from Kansas for 81 ,273 60; and that Mr..
Representative Wilson could get here
from Iowa for 1892 40; but it costs that
paragon of Senatorial mOdesty and vir-
tue, Mr.. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, %, 100
to get here from Racine, on the lower
coast of Lake Michigan. almost down to
Chicago; viii undertake to get there,
without the use of any of the dead-head
tickets which the Senator has in his
pocket, and stopping every night to sleep
at first class hotel, for the odd sixty
dollars; and so leave him the round twen-
ty-one hundred for stealings!
These are all the items Of the Senate
rial mileage account have been able TO
procure Icalled at the proper quarter for
more, but was pleasantly told that they
were constrained 60 regard the accounts
of the Senators with the government,
left in the hands of officers of the Sem
ate, rs private | happen, however, TO
know way in which they can be- shown
to be not private; and | may have Occa-
sion vet TO return to draw from them
fresh illustrations of Senatorial virtue
and economy.