The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-12-27

81 Ii there is not merciless cutting down of
the expenses of the House of Representatives
this session, it will not be for lack of men
who are bent on abolishing all sinecures and
stopping the petty leaks by which big sums of
money aresquandered every year. Mr.. Oates,
OF Alabama, served notice long ago that he
would ask for an investigation of the offices
OF the House, with view to finding out how
many useless employees there were on the pay
rolls, so that they might be Topped off. Now
Congressman w. w. Dickerson, of Kentucky,
who succeeded Mr.. Carlisle in the House when
the latter went over to the Senate, announces a
determination to cut off the clerks heretofore
given to committees which rarely or never
meet. Mr. Dickerson is in position to carry
out his plan as he is on the Committee on
Accounts, which has control of these matters.
Mr.. Dickerson said last night. 'sI'm going to
see that these ornamental committees which
don't meet once year and have no business
to do, are not allowed clerks. There are a lot
OF such committees which were apparently
organized for 20 other purpose than to pro-
vide chairmanships for certain men, and give
them little patronage to distribute in the
form of a clerkship. These clerks to orna-
mental committees either do nothing at all
but draw their salaries, or else they merely
look after the private correspondence and
department. business of the chairmen. Pm
going let the country know about these things
and I'm going to do what 1 can to have the
abuse stopped.
Another thing, Pm going to do" Mr..
Dickerson continued, sis to propose the crea-
tion OF an entirely new officer of the House
VINO snail have as much power and dignity
as any other officer. He will have entire
charge of all purchases of supplies for the
House While L know the creation of new
offices is contrary to Democratic policy, |
believe that such an officer as propose will
save his salary ten times over in the course of
year. The supplies of stationery, ink, pens,
pencils, and hundreds of other things for
which the House spends thousands of dollars
annually are now bought by half dozen diff
ferent people. AS far as l can find out, the
contracts for furnishing these supplies are
now given out purely as matter of personal
favor and friendship. They are not bought as
they ought to be of manufacturers and whole
salers. Very often they are not even bought
of retailers, but are purchased of the latter at
retail rates by personal friends of tha officer
OF the House who has the giving of the con-
tract. Then the officers friend sells the goods
to the officer at handsome profit No wonder
the amount spent by Congress for supplies is
SO large. If there was one man to look after
these purchases and approve all bills, this
sort of thing would he stopped, as 1t ought to
be stopped, and thousands of dollars could
be saved annually"
IL Mr.. Dckerson carries out this programme
he Will get himself very much disliked about
the Capitol.
Among the committees whose chairman
would probably be deprived of the luxury of
clerks, ii Mr. Dickerson's scheme were car
rled out, are the Committees on Expenditures
In the Executive Departments, the Committee
on Ventilation and Acoustics and several
others.