Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1880-03-20
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Mar. IS, ISIS

Since the new rules Of the House
have been in operation it has come
to be known that one of them is in
the interest of certain class of lob
byists. Formerly leading represen-
tatives of the press were accorded
privileges of the floor, but now they
are limited to the smoking room back
of the hall, while ex-Congressmen
are permitted to walk about the floor
and button-hole members in the in
terest of whatever jobs they may
have on hand. This gives the press
about half chance against these
professionals and their schemes. 1t
is very well known, here at least,
that ex-Members of Congress are
among the most adroit and success
full lobbyists. A great many OF them
after their terms expire remain here
and engage in the business of advo-
eating all sorts of schemes and
claims, to their own profit. In the
last days of a session when some
subsidy or other job is to be pushed
through they crowd the floor and
fill the sofas which stand against
the walls, each one having certain
Congressman to influence and prod.
The press has part Of one Of the
galleries set apart for it where de-
bates and the like may be reported,
but to secure any real information
for the public this gallery is useless.
To obtain knowledge of what is
going on in the House, good, bad or
Indifferent, it is necessary to have
some means of communication with
the members. To the most impor-
tant branch of the lobby this is grant
ed; to the press it is vigorously re-
fused. When in former days the
lobby and the press were put on
equal terms by the practice Of the
House, the correspondents of news
papers, who are both honest and
alert, were able, in numberless in
stances, to get at and expose and de-
feat the schemes of the LOBBY. But
in the new era of economy and re-
form, so called, Congress has. with
curious care, both crippled the
press and protected and encour-
aged the lobby.
~ Sc fhran{nna1 xx,sfh n
scandal dirtier than the Acklen
fraud in the House. Mrs. Lock
wood, female lawyer, publishes a
card accusing Senator Hill of dis
graceful irregularities, and the pub
LEGATION of this letter will perhaps
induce Mr.. Hill to call for another
investigation, inasmuch as part of
the accusation is that he has made
appointments in the Senate for rea-
sons which, if substantiated, would
certainly be an insult to the Senate.
The origin of this difficulty between
Mrs. Lockwood and Senator Hill
was the suit filed by her against the
Senator in behalf of young woman,
charging him with bastardy. But
the young woman turns out to have
been pretty bad one, and herself
published statement that the suit
was begun without her consent.
This cast the burden of the affair
upon Mrs. Lockwood, and the Sena-
tor proposes to prosecute her. /
know nothing of the merits of the
case. Senator Hill may be no better
in this particular than some other
Congressman l could name, but as
for Mrs. Lockwood there is de-
cided opinion that she is making
herself too free in looking up cases
of this sort to get into. She has no
legal knowledge or ability whatever
and it is not impossible that she may
hs a result of this conduct be dis
barred.
There have been several scandals
N this Congress of several kinds,
and hushing them up, in the hope
that they will be forgotten, is not so
effective as some Congressman seem
% think. There is, for instance, the
Acklen business. One of the new
rules set forth that Questions of
privilege shall be, first, those effect
ing the rights of the House, the
safety, dignity and the integrity of
its proceedings and any member of
the House may at any time call its at
tention to a breech of these. The Ack-
len case, as reported by the Foreign
Affairs Committee, clearly affected
ts dignity and particularly the in
tegrity of its pr0ceedings-he having
deliberately deceived the House by
presenting as report of the COM
mittee, a paper which was entirely
the work of his own hands. 1t is a
case demanding expulsion, yet it has
been dropped into the safe deposit of