New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-03-01
TIE PREMIUM on CONTESTED ELECTIONS.

TIE PREMIUM on CONTESTED ELECTIONS
There creeps into the summary OF the uuiin-
ished business-the fag ends OF things that
remain to be done by the present Congress be-
fore it can decrntly adjourn-the almost I'M
noticed item of four five contested election
cases. Ii is only an ordinary occurrence, and
no one pays any attention to ii or considers II
of the slightest consequence or significance.
At the very heel of the session of every Con
gress there come up reports from the Com
mittee on Elections settling questions which
from their very nature should have been dis
| posed of at the earliest possible day after the
converting Of Congress, the settlement of which
in the last hours of the session means nothing
whatever except that some statesman who was
not elected TO Congress draws pay for service
be was never employed to perform, while an
| other statesman, who vas elected, draws the
same amount for service he has not been per-
mtted to perform, and both draw large amounts
from the Treasury TO reimburse themselves for
EXPENSES incurred in a two years fight over the
question which of the two was really elected.
In the case Ct the present Congress, of the
four or five unsettled confessed cases, there are
two of this character. Tho Elections Committee
entitled to the seat occupied by Cults, ReDubli-
can, and that Sessinghaus. Republican, OF Mis-
souri, s entitled to the seat occupied by Frost,
Democrat, and the House will undoubtedly
adopt the Committee reports. Here are two
| districts neither of which has been represented
| in the present Congress-according to the find
ings of the Committee, which will he approved
by the House--by the person whom the voters
selected They have been not merely unrepre-
| sented. but misrepresented. And the injustice
| done them is not corrected and cannot be- A
necupiary reparation to the Representative
who has been kept ont of his seat is the only
| thing attempted. The result of this is that in
| these two districts the Government pays for
their misrepresentation four separate salaries
with mileage and stationery allowances. to-
| gether with large sums incurred i'll taking test
imony and for counsel fees. ETC.
| In the twenty-five contested election cases
which have come before the present Congress,
the expenses incurred for taking testimony, to
| defray which bills have already been presented
amount to 500, 1919 80. In the case of Sessing
| haus against Frost, the expenses OF the former
| were 81 6, G40 70, and of the latter SlO,S16 10
an aggregate of $27, 45G 90, for the payment
of which out of the Treasury II bill is now pend
| ing. As each of these contestants draws
| $40, 900 salary for the Congressional term, with
full allowance for mileage, stationery, etc. it
will be seen that the misrepresentation of one
district in Missouri will cost the Government
in the neighboIhood of $4,000, or about five
times what it costs for a regularly elected mem
Der whose seat is not contested
| 1t hardly needs to be point ed out that the
| whole practice of Congress IN reference to con-
| tested elections needs reforming Take the
| single item To which allusiOn has been made,
of the expenses Of CONTESTANTS IL is estimated
that upon fair average each contested cleo
| ton case costs the Government no less than
| 81, 900. In the XLIlId Congress there were
| fourteen, which, aside from double salaries and
allowances in several, cost $4,000; in the
| XLIVth there were nineteen, costing 500, 600 ;
| In the XLYth, sixteen, costing $50, 600; in the
XLyIth, eighteen, costing 500, 900 aod in the
present Congress there have been twenty-five
cases, and, as before stated, bills in these cases
amount already to about $4,000, with the