Litchfield enquirer., 1869-11-04
From the Worcester Spy. SMALL SINS OF CONGRESS-"

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 From the Worcester Spy.
 SMALL SINS OF CONGRESS.
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 MT. James Parton,, in the last number of the Atlantie Monthly, discusses '.The Small Sins of Congress" He shows some knowledge of his subject, and many of his criticisms are worthy of attention.1 There are old customs of both the House and Senate, that might be reformed. Most of the ''incidentals" of congressional funerals should be discontinuedS The document business should be reconstructed Senators and Members of the House can so use their influence as to lessen the number of em- ployees, not only at the capitol, but also, in the departments. And they can abstain from employing such persons as Winnie Ream to make statues. There are other matters that might very properly be ,sub- jectek to reform. 24E so-1 ai -LE1I ae5A
 But, it is manifest that Mir. Parton is not we'll informed in regard to some of the mat ters concerning which he writes. There are not, as he supposes, many supernamer- ary employees about the Capitol: The fails to understand clearly the purpose and necess ity of the contingent" account of the House and Senate; and, on two or three points, he falls into positive errors and interpretations. Of course he has no intention to misrepresent the facts; and for. this reason, the influence of his mis- takes is the more1 injurious. gs One of his errors relates to the cost to 2 the country of time spent in sessions of the House or Senate. He says for instance:
 "Will the honorable member from Ohio allow me five minutes to make an explana- tion? says an honorable member from somewhere else. If that request is grant ed it costs. the people of the United States six hundred dollars. T And again; "Call- ing the yeas and nays, an operation of half an hour, comes to over four thousand dol lars.''l isidu sf ri 4f,ifiaaa 5eyy ere.5rT
 We should like to see MT. Parton ex- plain these statements. It is impossible fnr us to imagine the process by which he makes this calculation of expense.l If con- gressmen were paid by the hourNr, day. and If all other expenses were Regularly suspended, when the daily session is ad- journed, until twelve oclock the next day, -there would be a basis for his calculation but this is not true, So far as relates to expense to the country, 1t makes no diff ference whether the daily session is ad journed, at one; three, or five o'clock in the afternoon. Neither the honorable gen. tlemgn's Give minutes" nor the taking of the yeas and nays adds anything to the cost of Congress to the country. Short daily sessions, 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 ofmem- bers They would be paid no more if they were in session all the time, than they are at present; their personal expenses, howey- CT, would be increased. Here is another mistake: ,.
 "When, we find two hundred posteamo- naies charged at prices ranging from $l 20 to $4.25 each, We cannot help feeling that every one of those articles is petty fraud. {. What scandal, too, is that annual pen knife business! One thousand and nine ty-eight pen-kniyes,a at prices averaging about three dollars seach,i find, after q few minutes search, charged among: the contingent expenses of the fortieth Con- gress! I could, probably, make up the amount to two thousand by going through the book ss .,o,r4., a -;~ f...r,;r
 MT. Parton would be much better in- formed on this subject, if he hadnmade due inquiry in the stationery room. The law requires the clerk to purchase and keep on hand, for sale to members, Q sup ply of stationery; and whatever remains unsold at the close of one Congress, is transferred to the next-the accounts be- ing carefully kept and properly audited. There is small allowance to7eaeh member for stationery, and, at the end of each Congress, members are required to settle their accounts, and pay their balances, if they have overdrawnI the allowance. They get neither ..porte=monnaies," pen-knives. nor stationery of any kind, for which they are not required to pay ys" Mr. Parton, has aqueer notion of this s.'pen-knife Gbusi- ness" because he does not understand it. In the contingencies of Congress, he can find charged the whole amount of sta ktienery purchased by the clerk for sale; he can, also, find credited there what mem bers have paid the clerk for stationery. There was 8 time when the penfknife and stationery business was something like what Mir. Parton imagined but that was years ago, So far as the House is concern ed; and the old custom has finally been abolished in the Senate. No member of either body now receives stationery with out paying. for it, as we have explained. The changehas greatly reduced the expen- ses of this article, and titus corrected one of the ,'ssman sins, which, in other days, sometimes grew to be a rather large one. e~'-- 0ss'g}gF Cs EIM 8Jflk sI1JW sT9LStg