The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-10
CONGREssMEN ON THEIR TRAVELS.
LFro,, fbo NJ L 1t;N,,o

CONGRESSMEN ON THEIR TRAVELS.
From the ~ Y. Times.
Time was when the close of session of Con-
gress brought relief to its committees. Or if
perchance committee found the continuance
OF an investigation necessary, members re-
manned mt Washington to conduct it. That old
fashioned mode of transacting business no
longer suits the House committees. They pro-
pose to turn the recess to pleasurable account,
and to prove their zeal in the public service by
travelling hither and thither with all the pomp
and circumstance of Congressional authority, at
the public expense. There seems, indeed, to
have been rather undigni6ed game of grab
among the chairmen concerned to secure the
wherewithal for their enjoyment. The cOntin-
gent fund is not unlimited and the maxim first
come first served" has been applied to such pur-
pose that little is left for inevitable expenditures
The choicest plum has fallen into the lap of Mr..
Schenck. As the head of the Ways and Means
committee, he has secured $4,000 to defray the
cost of tour down and across the continent.
An inspection of custom houses at work is the
professed object of the trip, which will begin
ut New York and end at San Francisco. With
free railroad passes, and dining and wining all
the way, ten thousand should bring back the in
yestgators handsomely. Three thousand form
the measure of General Banks enjoyment
which is to be sought in Cuba or Heaven knows
where; and like sum has been made available
by Mr.. Bingham for jaunt to Alabama in rela-
tiOn to Judge Busteed. New Orleans being more
expensive than Montgomery, it is not surprising
that General Paine and his associates who are
desirous of working up the Louisiana election
cases. could not consent to start with less than a
snug five thousand, which should provide sufli-
cheney of juleps for the hottest weather. Gene
raj Garfield and his Census Committee, and Mr..
Lynch and his Shipping Committee, are provided
for with three and two thousand respectively.
Even the Committee on Retrenchment cannot
fOregO its chance of recreation, for which O
modest two thousand are all that is available.
Fortune dispenses favors inydously. A CRATE
full and patriotic nation may not begrudge sum
1nN- ht,tn
may ask that they shall be impartially dispensed
As the matter stands, the holiday journeyings,
with Uncle Sam us the treasurer, are confined to
a handful of the members, and they all of one
party. If Mr.. Banks, for example, is entitled to
an ocean trip and its delightful ct cetera, the
cost thereof being drawn from the House con
tingencies, why should not Mr. Fernando Wood
draw upon the same source for his European
excursion? And so all round the House. II
mileage and seasonal allowances are not to be
the limit of the countrys provision for its legis-
latOrs and if trips by land and sea are to be
added rs Il means of charging the minds and in
MIGRATING the bodies of those who weary of
Washington and home, we insist that all the
members shall profit by the arrangement. There
is quite enough of monopoly without extending
it to pleasurable pilgrimages.
AS to the plea that these wanderings are un-
dertaken in the public service, with q view to
the acquisition of knowledge or the perform
ance of work, we attach no credence to it.. If
the Ways and Means Committee wants to learn
something touching the operation of the tariff,
or the machinery of the customs department, it
should call to its aid experts and practical, ex-
perienced men, who really have some ideas on
the subject. The Special Commissioner of Reve-
nue., we venture to say, already knows more in
regard to it than will the members of the COM
mittee alter their return from San Francisco;
and if, on some specific point, more light is
needed, he, or some one like him, is the best
man to supply it. The perambulating process
is more likely to confuse than to enlighten; it
may yield big blue books, but of accurate, trust
worthy, and exhaustive information it will
almost necessarily be barren. And us with the
Ways and Means Committee, so with the Census
and Shipping Committees. Their investigations,
conducted on the wing, will be farces, or some
thing worse.
The whole business is derogatory to the dig
nifty of Congress, and burlesbue upon practi-
cal methods of inquiry and work.