Evening star., 1893-09-09

clerk hre. as per above certificate.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
Placed on Their Honor.
The statesmen are thus placed on their
honor to certify strictly the amount they
have expended for clerical help. Nobody is
compelled to incur any expenditure at all
unless he chooses, but every one who is not
chairman OF a committee and provided with
committee clerk Is at liberty to employ
assistance to the extent Of SlO0 monthly
II the amount Of his work requires him TO
pay pay more. the excess must come out of his
own pocket. Most Of the members will find
II convenient to spend the full 500 per
month, while others who may happen to
employ piece workers will conscientiously
eertiry for only the exact sum paid out
10 most of them the new plan viii afror}
much needed relief. and will be especially
weicomed as an unmixed blessing BY those
VINO nave been burdened heretofore by the
necessity either Of doing their own cieri-
cal work for pecuniary reasons or OF hay-
lns IL done "a their own personal expense
Wore, perhaps, than anything else the
oaliy mails determine the real character
OF every Congressman's career in Washing
ton. They either bind him down to the
grindStone of dull drudgery by their heayi-
ness. or else by their lightness permit him
10 soar aloIt In the clear empyrean Of leg
isiative endeavor. Or again, IL only moder-
ate they will at least compel him to divide
E:s attention between them and the more
aiinflns lines of statesmaniike activity
ASIDE from a Congressman's regular duties
IN committee -and on the floor of the
House, his correspondence hitherto has
consumed the lions share Of his time d.
sesrt Is 1s,,S ny consequences. As rule nearly
writing Of three letters on his part-frst.
one OF Acknowledgements; second one of in
Jury, addressed to some official in one of
tne departments. and third, one announc-
Ing the result to the constituent In addi
tion the departments have to be visited
rrequentS IN search of information and
mi many other errands have to be performed
represent his people. The daily mail or
some of the leading congressman. and even
OF some OF the most obscure ones, often
amounts TO 80. IS, or 100 letters, chiefly of
an official nature. II a Representative nm
dsrtook to answer them himself and SUD-
ply the wants expressed in them by their
WRITER'S, ne found 1t absolutely impossible
10 DO anything else. On the other hand n
ne attempted to perform his broader duties
py participating In the discussions and leg
isiation OF the day he had to leave his let
ters unopened.
An Expensive Honor.
A Congressman's 5000 salary NAV seem
princeiy to people in the back country dis
tricts. but in practice it scarcely enables
Its recipient to live moderately and nav ex-
penses. Hence. impecunious Congressmen
With large families to support have found
IL heavy drain on them to pay people for
writing their letters and running their er-
ramos ramos. Many have even retired from Con-
gress altogether because of the excessive ex-
pense involved In living and paving FOR
these necessary services.
Nevertheless, 50 tender-footed have Rem
resentauves been In the past about voting
clerks to themselves that they have been
content TO struggle along without them as
pest they could. 1t Is true the august and
reverend senators at the other end of the
nrmly meeting the issue and voting TO sun
ply themselves with clerks at public ex-
pense and nobody said them nav. Rut
Stn SSema.ors are IN different position from the
ulrect representatives Of the people They
are not obliged to face the sovereigns Of
the SOIL every two years at the polls and
therefore they do not have such wholesome
rear or the people before their eyes. In
recent years members of the House have
continually wanted clerks and wanted them
Dadiy, but they dreaded lest by supplying
tnelr wants from the public purse they
would incur the wrath of the voters al
nome. Repeatedly they have tried to au-
thorize the employment of clerks to them
sstVes oy engraftins amendments to that
enect upon the regular appropriation bills
when In committee of the whole and these
amendments would have been carried each
time by overwhelming majorities If they
mad been permitted 70 go through the House
without yea and nay vote But fmrnediata
ly on the dreaded call of the yeas and nays
which would put them on record the mora
timorous members have preciptately run
under cover or lodged, and after standing
up valiantly for clerks one moment, have
with equal positiveness recorded their votes
against clerks the next.
When the Opportunity Came.
A more opportune time was selected last
March, however. at the close of the Fifty
second Congress. to accomplish the long
desired object for the benefit of the sue
ceed;ng Congress- the Fifty-third. when II
could not be justly charged that the mem
be-s had voted money directly into their
own pockets. A joint resolution, subtly
drawn, to which no valid objection could be
urged. providing simply to reimburse such
members as should employ outside assist
ance for the amount Of their actual out
lay. was introduced and called up in the
last week. 1t passed the House in a jiffy
was agreed to by the Senate and sent to
the White House. receiving the signature
Of President Harrison in approval among
the last acts signed by him. Under IT'S pro-
visions when Congress ia not in session
there can be no pay for clerk hire, and no
sinecure for the clerk, since 1t is assumed
that representatives can attend to their
own correspondence when none Of their
time II diverted to purely legislative work.
Since the present session began the Con-
gressmen have been Ia high feather on ac-