The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-07-16
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent

(FrJm our Regular Correspondent
WASHINGTON, July 9th, 1886.
For years the Senate and House of
Representatives have been drifting
apart, and the separation becomes con-
stantly wider. Nothing can be palmer
than the lack of cordiality, ] might al
most say lack of respect, which exists
between the members of the Houses.
Ten years ago nothing was more COM
mon than to see twenty or twenty-five
Senators on the floor of the House either
engaged in business or social converse
ton with members of that body. And
similar visits of members of the House
to the other end of the Capitol were just
as frequent. Ever since then such in.
tercourse has been growing less and
less each year, and now a member of
the Senate on the floor of the House, or
member of the House on the floor of
the Senate, is a rarity. The most fire.
quent visitors to the House from the
other end fthe capitol are the Texas
and Kentucky senators, but even they
are seldom seen there.
| asked a Democratic Congressman
the cause of these strained relations.
''There are many" said he, land laugh
ingly) one probably ought not to be
told. But You recollect that the senate
used to make rather free of its contin-
gent fund. 1t had coolers of lemonade
and tubs of Appollinaris water always on
hand during warm weather. Well, we
on this side were more economical. We
4. NlN..s r. l..
of iced AppOllinaris, and We acquired a
habit of dropping over to the senate and
partaking of what was there. We were
rather regular i'm that habit. Finally
the senate shut down on us and that
made some of us mad. But of course
that was little thing. Another little
but yet larger cause of GOODNESS between
the members of the two bodies was the
refusal of the senate to admit ex-mem-
bers of the House to its floor. We fol-
lowed by refusing to admit ex-senators
to the privileges OfOur floor. As | said.
those are small things i'm themselves,
but they showed Il growing exclusive
ness on the part of the senate, which
was very irritating to the House, which
is certainly very Democratic body.
But he held that the main cause of
the breach between the two Houses
rested in the fact that while the House
is directly from the people, the senators
are not chosen by the people, but bv
the states. "The senator's" he said,
have become the representatives of the
interests, mot of the people," and add
ed he, they have become the represent
tatives of corporations too.
There is deep mutiny i'm congress Ov-
er the presidents wholesale lombard
ment of pension bills. A lively time is
expected to-day when an effort will be
made to override his vetOes. While
the presidents course was being criti-
cised i'm the House few days since,
Representative Conger of Iowa, resent
ell the language used by the president
i'm his veto messages as throwing slurs
upon the motives of congress, and as in
sulting to the Union soldier. Mr.. Bayne
of Pa, took the same view, and suggest
ed that the Democrats who stood by the
vetoes would have their manhood very
severely taxed.
Mr.. Cannon, of H., read i'm the We
toes the story that, while Cleveland was
president, there would be no further
pension legislation. There were great
questions in this country calling for the
attention of the executive, yet the Presl-
dent brushed them all aside and ap-
peared anxious to cater to nobody ex-
cept that little solid knot that came from
the solid south. He wanted to get their
applause; they cast solid votes in NOM
mating conventions. There he stood
looking through eimlet hole with a
magnifying glass hunting for excuses
and heaping derision upon the heads of
poor men who lost their health in the
service of the country. That was states '