The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1884-02-16
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON.
WASHINGTON. d. c.. Feb, 18th

WASHINGTON, u. VI, Fep. lztn, 1904.
Messrs. Editors Although the present Con-
gress met on the first Monday in December last,
nearly two and a-half months ago, and was to be
business Congress, twenty bills that have passed
the Senate and several acts to repeal land grants
the Fitz John Porter bill, and bill relating to
the number and pay of certain officers and enlist
ed men of the volunteer forces that have passed
the House, represent about all that has been &C
complished up to this time. Yesterday the SEN
ate concurred in the Greedy Relief Bill, so that 1t
could become law, and the House passed bill
appropriating 100000 for the relief of the suf
ferers by the Ohio river food, which, no doubt,
will meet with the prompt concurrence of the Sen
ate. Both of these were urgent matters, and
could not be delayed if they were to do any good
for the purposes for which they were intended
1t would have been unmerciful in the former case
for Congress to have continued haggling, as it
has done for several weeks, over the details OF
the bill while the poor men constituting the Gree
ly party are perishing, perhaps, in Arctic seas
But notwithstanding so little has SO far been ac-
complished, apparently by the present Congress,
many of the older and more astute members are
shrewd to catch the public eye. They play roles
that the less experienced members would not be
adopts in. and possibly many of them never
would become such. For instance, they know
that the average American citizen delights in
seeing his representative busy, and apparently
earning the money which he receives for repre-
senting him. Therefore, while that same Ameri-
can citizen may be peering down from one of the
galleries, the Congressman is immensely busy,
writing letters or clapping his hands for pages to
carry away his volumin0us correspondence, or at
intervals he jumps up in his scat and cries out
"Mr. President" or "Mr. Speaker" as though he
had some tremendously weighty matter to present
for the consideration of the body of which ne is
member for the great good of the country or Of
his immediate constituency. Thus, these Con-
gressmen are ableto kill two birds with one stone.
They appear very busy and interested in the i'm
portant public business they have to attend to, and
at the same time are able to work off their CORES
pondence, which Mr.. Bedford, of Colorado, recently
wanted clerk appointed to each member at the
expense of government, to do, which probably in
part and possibly in whole is private eorrespon-
dence, for their sole private benefit in fixing up
their fences" for a denomination and reelection
the coming fall.
1t is one of the wrongs of our system that a
Congress does not meet for full year after its
election, for, in the present session, Congress
men are engaged nearly or quite half their time
in seeking denomination and election. From now
on through the coming summer they Will be en-
gagged in this pastime, SO that at least half their
attention will be distracted from the public bust
ness. Also, another evil or wrong of it is that
from the time that Congress is elected until it
meets year afterwards, the public sentiment tof
the whole country may undergo change, and
then it will not represent the present sentiment of
the country This also is we'll illustrated in the
present Congress. A majority of its members,
who are Democrats, were elected to their seats by
the Democratic tidal wave of 1882. But since
then change has taken place in the sentiment
of the country which in the last falls election re-
| versed the results of the previous year, brought
the states that had broken away back to their
| moorings In the Republican party, and not only
made the election of Republican President pos
sible, but almost sure, this year. ANON.