The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1884-02-09
FROM WASHINGTON.
lerkships---Amusing Letters from
North CarOlina..Our Ladies and our
COngre ssmen.


COngressmen.
Special Correspondence Of The Chronicle
WASHINGTON. Feb. 6.-There is a lack
OF knowledge in the howl that. / see.
comes up ffcm some OF the Southern pa
pers as well as others against the Senate's
recent vote to allow every Senator a clerk
whose salary shall be paid out of the treas
ury. The sum total that will thus be paid
out for clerical work per year is big
amount, but it will not be ill.spent. Eve
rybody who knows anything about the
work done or that ought to be done by
every Senator knows very well that he
cannot do it himself. As matter Of
fact the most of them even those who
are not chairmen of committees have al
ways had private secretaries or some sort
of make shift. OF course the committees
have secretaries to help in that peculiar
work. The trouble has been that the in
dustrio us and honest Senators have not
been able to pay for such clerical help as
they really need. Five thousand year
for public man in Washington is not lux
uriance, you may be sure.
The Senators, and members too, have a
stream Of correspondence from home that
is nonsense; but much is OF importance.
Not one man in dozen undertakes to an
swer all the foolish letters he receives !: he
cannot with his own hand answer 1.-THE
of the important ones. Yet if the people
do not hear from him, they are ready to
charge neglect without hesitation.
l suppose that no funnier letters come
to any Congressman than to the North
Carolina delegation. One of our men, bers
once received with request for seed an
application for clerkship for son of the
correspondent, and along with this was an
explanation OF a grand scheme to put ear
ly roasting ears on the Washington mark
ct. The boy who had just finished a course
in penmansEip somewhere, was during the
hours he should not be employed as a clerk,
to look after the roasting ear trade. An
other correspondent who was a postmas-
ter wished to be transferred to another
pOstoffice and to secure a railroad pass to
save expenses in moving.
True, it is not worth paying 81 900 a
year to have such questions as these an
swered but it is worth it to the people to
! have important inquiries attended to.
The delay in moving on the tariff causes
fierce comment here at times. But the
Democratic members say that the people
seem to have forgotten that there are any
other subjects than this one. 1t requires a
| long time to get any bill on any such sub
| ject through. Debate will be endless. The
| truth is land it is not hard to see iD every
| body is afraid of the tariff. There are
| shrewd men who think that postponing
| action on the subject will be had and the
whole subject buried till the election is
passed. 1t is simply dynamite at q time
! so near the Presidential election as this.
| All the talk about the prominence of the
| North Carolina delegation both in the &C
tive legislative circles for after all only g
very few Congressman really work in the
| front ranks and in social circles is wei
| founded. 1 believe speak within bound
when I say that no other Southern State
| has SO many ladies in Washington society
who do so much to make it charming a!
| North Carolina. And our delegation is ar
unusually energetic one. [ do not NEAR
any disparagement of the rest, but know
of my own personal knowledge that ne
men in Washington work harder than Sen
ator Vance, MIR. Cox and Mr.. Scales.