Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-10-28
.. Small Sins of Congress.~

From the Worcester spy.
Mr.. James Parton, in the last number
of the Atlantic Monthly, discusses The
small SINS of Congress- He shows
some knowledge of his subject, and
many of his criticisms are worthy of at
tention. There are old customs of both
the House and tue Senate, that might
be reformed. Most of the 'incidentals'
of congressional funerals should be dis
continued. The document business
should be reconstructed. Senators and
members of the House can SO use their
influence as to lessen the number OF
employees, not only at the Capitol but
also, in the departments. And they
can abstain from employing such per-
sons as Winnie Ream to make statues.
There are other matters that might very
properly be subjected to reform.
But, it is manifest that Mr.. Parton is
not well informed in regard to some OF
the matters concerning which he writes.
There are not, as he supposes, many su-
pernumary employees about the Capitol ;
he fails to understand clearly the pur-
pose and necessity of the contingent
account of the House and Senate; and,
OH two or three points, he falls into pos
tive errors and misrepresentation. Of
course, he has no intention to misrepre-
sent the facts; and, for this reason, the
influence of his mistakes is the more in
furious. One of his errors relates to the
cost of the country of time spent in ses-
sions of the House or Senate. He says,
for instance.
will the honorable member from
Ohio allow me five minutes to make an
explanation? asks an honorable member
from somewhere else. Ifthat request is
granted, it costs the people of the United
States six hundred dollars And again:
Calling the yeas and nays, an operation
of half an hour, comes to over four thou
sand dollars.
We should like to see Mr.. Parton ex-
plain these statements. 1t is impossible
for us to imagine the process by which
he makes this calculation of expense. If
Congressman were paid by the hour or
the day,-aud if other expenses were
regularly suspended, when the daily
session is adjourned, until twelve o'clock
of the next day,-there would be basis
for his calculation; bat this is not true.
So far as relates toiexpense to the coun
try, it makes no difference whether the
daily session is adjourned at one, three,
or five O'Clock in the afternoon. Neither
the honorable gentleman's five min
utes,' nor the taking of the yeas and
nays adds anything to the cost of Con-
gress to the country. Short daily ses-
sions, or daily sessions made long by
nothing but useless talk, may lengthen
the stay of Congress at Washington but
this adds to the personal expenses Of
members. They would be paid no more,
if they were in session all the time, than
they are at present; their personal ex-
penses, however, would De increased.
Here is another mistake:
when we find two hundred porte
monnaies charged at prices ranging from
81 % to $4 % each, we cannot help feel
ing that every one of those articles is
petty fraud. What a scandal, too, is that
annual penknife business! One thou
sand and ninety-eight penknives, AT
prices averaging about three dollars
each, I find, after few minutes search,
charged among the contingent expenses
of the Fortieth Congress! | could prob
ably, make up the amount to two thou
sand by going through the book.
Mr.. Parton would be much better in
formed on this subject, if he had made
due inquiry III the stationery room. The
law requires the clerk to purchase and
keep on hand for sale to members, a
supply of stationery; and whatever re-
mains unsold, at the close OF one Con-
sress, is transferred to the next,-the
accounts being carefully kept and prop
erly audited. There is small allow
ance to each member for stationery, and,
at the end of each Congress, members
are required to settle their accounts and
pay their balances, if they have over
drawn the allowance. They get neither
'portemonnaies,' penknives, norstation-
cry of any kind, for which they are not
required to pay. Mr.. Parton has queer
notion OF this 'penknife business be-
cause he does not understand it. In tine
contingent account of Congress, he can
find charged the whole amount of sta
tiOnery purchased by the clerk for sale !;
he can, also, find credited there what
members have paid the clerk for sta
tionery.
There was time when the penknife
and stationery business was something
like what Nlr. Parton imagined; but that
was years ago, so far as the House is con-
cerned; and the old custom has finally
been abolished in the Senate. Mo- MEM
ber of either body now receives station
cry without paying for it, as we have
explained. The change has greatly re-
duced the expenses for this article, and
thus corrected one of the small sins,
which, in other days, sometimes grew to
be rather large one.