The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-03-24
: SENATORIAL sTEALINGs.
Illustrations Of Virtuous Public
Economy--Senatorial Mileage
Swindles.

hconomy--Sen Mileage
Swindles.
Washington Letter to the Cincinnati Gazette.
Sundry gentlemen in the Senate whose
notion OF economy seems to be to keep up
q vigorous watch upon the droppings at
the spigot, while the great leaks at the
bung hole 60 unnoticed, have of late ex-
hibited unwonted virtue on the subject of
. resolution which the House passed at
the last session, making temporary in
crease in the pay of its own employees,
out OF its own contingent fund. As to
the propriety of that resolution I have not
one word to say but it is worth while to
see what manner of men these in the SEN
ate are, who think themselves pure enough
to enter upon the very Improbable BUSH
ness of throwing stones at the House of
Representatives. The Senate of the Uni
ted States Is, in all matters Of provision
for its own comfort and convenience, pro-
verbally the most extravagant Legislative
body in the world. For its 50 members it
spends $4,000 in stationery. The 1872
members Of the House only ask for their
whole number $12, 300! The 81 members
OF the Senate manage to consume in
session more ice than ali the 1872 members
Of the House! They pay their Secretary
$3.50 q year more than the House
gives its Clerks; and the clerks OF their
committees $14 more per week. They
order Just four times as many of the ex-
pensive Congressional Globes as does the
House Of Representatives and, to be
brief their other expenditures are in SIM
liar ratio.
That they are unduly extravagant do
not say; but it is interesting to observe
that they are the parties to charge the
House of Representatives with extrava-
gance. d
Mr.. Senstor Sherman has been conspic-
uous as the leader in this virtuous rightly
of the Senate. A prying wretch, for whom
capital punishment would be too mild q
fate, thought he would look into one or
two items Of the virtuous Senator's little
private account with the government. His
first discovery was the interesting = fact
that, computing his mileage from Mans
field, Ohio, by the shortest route, the SEN
ator has to spend (and draw therefor
from the treasury $520.40 for travelling
to Washington! Mr.. VIM. johnson, q
member of the House, lives in the same
to,on but manages to get here for $40!
The Senator, who is one of the most hon
est men in public life, has been too busy
watching the rascality of the House in its
expenditure of its own contingent fund, to
discover this trihing leak out Of the treas
ury into his own pocket. III.
But this is q mere bagatelle. Mr.. Sena-
tor Sherman may be readily excused for q
trifing, an accidental overcharge; but what
shall we say of his friend, Mr.. Senator
"Jim Lane, of Kansas. That incorrupt-
able 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 it
costs him two thousand one hundred and
sixty dollars. 1t happened that the Repre-
sentative from Kansas lives in 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 in Atchison, forty or fifty miles
nearer Washington than Mr.. "Jim Lane,
but it costs him precisely the same 50, 100,
to get there, while Mr.. Wilder, the Rep
resentative living back at Lawrence can
travel the extra fifty miles and get here
for nearly half the money or to put il
accnrately for 81 07S f(lt d.
But from the Kansas Senators nobody
would expect anything else. Iowa ought
to send men of different stamp, and il
must be that the curious facts about Their
mileage need only to be called to their
economical attention to be corrected Mr..
Senator Grimes lives at Burlington, on the
Mississippi river; Mr.. Senator Harlan lives
at Mount Pleasant, just one county west
from Burlington; and Mr.. Representative
Wilson, from the extravagant House, lives
at Fairfield, just one county west from
Mount Pleasant. Now it curiOusly hap
pens that Mr.. Senator Grimes charges the
government $1,115.S4 for travelling here
from Burlington; and Mr.. Senator Harlan
$1,606.4O from Mount Pleasant; while
Mr.. Representative Wilson is5 able to gel
here from Fairfield, just beyond both the
economical Senators, for $685.. 40.
1t has been seen that Mr.. Representative
Wilder could get to Washington from Kan
sas for 81, 279.6O; and that Mr.. Repre-
sentative Wilson could get here from Iowa
for $9S2.40; but it costs that paragon Of
Senatorial modesty and virtue, Mr.. Doo-
little, of Wisconsin, $2,16O to get here
from Racine, on the lower coast of Lake
Michigan, almost down to Chicago. will
undertake to get there, without the use OF
any of the dead-head tickets which the
Senator has in his pocket, and stop every
night to sleep at first-olass hotel, for the
odd sixty dollars and 80 leave him the
round twenty-one hundred for stealings!
These are all the items of the Senatorial
mileage account have been able to pro-
cufs. l called at the proper quarter for
more but was pleasantly told that they
were Constrained to regard the accounts