The Billings herald. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1882-1885, 1884-03-15
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From Our Regular Correspondent
J. G. IsAAcI.

| WASHINGTON, March 10
This is probably the most youth
) ful-looking House of Representa-
tives ever assembled. There arr
at least fifty members to whom thu
Clerk might have proposed th'
question asked of John Randolph
Are you of the required age? ano
to which Randolph's historic re-
ply was the first suggestion of the
ready wit that never forsook him
in his long Congressional career
But if few gray heads there is an
ample supply Of bald ones. Fully
two-thirds of the members are bald
and seen from the galleries that
shining white oasis in the centre
of the seat of wisdom seems almost
like a congressional badge.
Most of the members are well-to-
do and many of them millionaires.
In old times a rich politician was
an anomaly. 1t was not considered
good taste for public man to live
sumptuously or entertain luxuri-
ously. There was an eccentric idea
that the hands grasping the helm
of state should be clean and hardy
and that the true representative OF
the people was he who had some
personal knowledge of toll and
poverty, and could sympathize
knowingly with the hardships and
burdens of the laborins classes.
"Mais nous avons change tout cell" j."
Nowadays a poor man in public
life is rarity and capital is the
main object of legislation. Hewitt,
Belmont, Washburn, Morse and
Robson are by no means the only
Congressional millionaires.
Since 1861 unknown persons
have paid s1S6,459O9 into the
United States Treasury to quiet
their conscience. The largest rev.
enue from this source in any one
year was in 1853, when the contrib
tions to the conscience fund
amounted to s29,155.11. In 1878
1913, ,4O2.97 was added to the fund;
in 1867, s12,952.59; in 1869, s17,-
493, ,2l: in 1873, $2,O11.33. Last
year the contributions reached only
S7,SS3.14, and this year the total
will probably be less than that
unless somebody comes to the
front with big sum. "These con-
tributions" said a Treasury Off
cial, same in every possible way,
and the men, who take this means
Of paying back money stolen from
the government, and of making
peace with their conscience, are
almost invariably at great pains to
conceal their indentity. Some ex-
press currency or send it through
the mails by registered letters, fic-
titous names being employed.
Others send it through their priests
or pastors, but occaisanlly man
writes full particulars of how he be-
came indebted to the government.
The Treasury officials regarded
their relation with the contributors
to the conscience fund as confiden-
tial, and there has never been any
instance, to my knowledge, where
any attempt has been made to pull
aside the veil these parties have
sought to screen themselves be-
hind. Priests have made more
donations than all others combined
but the amounts that reach us
this way are usally very small"
Whatever the American House
Of Representatives, or the Govern
ment and people Of the United
States, may think of Bismarck's
action in relation to the Lasker
resolutions, it is evident that the
opinion prevails throughout the rest
of the civilized world that it was an
unmitigated insult.
Not an insult to the House of
Representatives alone, but equally
to the government as whole, for
the transmission of the resolutions
through the the State department
was equivalent to their adoption
by the government. And an insult
to the government is an insult to
the people, all and severally.
Yesterday the House committee
OH accounts determined to reduce
the undertaker's bill Of $3.50 for
the funeral of the late ID. G. Haskell
some 5000. The committee will
fix scale of expenses for funerals
in the future, beyond which
the Sergant-at-arms and
not be allowed to 60. It is pro-
posed to pay bills shortly after
they are made. Parties claim
that their high charges in the past
have been due to the fact that they
have been compelled to wait
and sometimes years, be-
fore payment for services are rem
dered were made. The undertaken
who furnished the casket for the re-
mains of President Garfield recently
informed the Sergant-at-arms of
the House that he had not yet been
paid.