The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1894-04-12

emptory language, as i'll were
, mere servant of somebody who or
dered me to furnish them with
series cf garden seeds. l have ha(
demands for bushels of potatos, corr
and oats enough to sow s, 10, an(
10 acres. l have before me now 6
generic sort of letter in which The
writer says. Please send me a full
supply of field and garden seeds.
Ny farm has about 100 acres of till,
able land.' | have been compelled
to purchase a considerable amount
in addition to my quota in order to
anywhere near meet the demand.
There is great skill in the manner
in which seeds are requested. For
instance. l have certain post office
i i'll my mind from which l have re-
ceived as many as 25 requests this
year. They are all couched in the
Sc me language, written in the same
handwriting and on identical sta
tionary, yet purporting to be from
different individuals. In one mail
l received requests for eight pack
! ages of of,garden seeds to be sent to
the same post Office and the last
, names of all the applicants were the
same. Evidently the entire family
including the children made the de-
mand and together they would have
had quite nice supply.
..Then comes a better style of re-
quests. They are for books. much
prefer to send them to men who
really want and will make use of
them rather :han 10 scatter them
broadcast, volunteering them to
people who may not be at all inter
rested i'll the subject treated. Great
intelligence is manifested III my dis
trict in regard to these documents
and am prond of 1t. However, it
is frequently impossible to comply
with all requests for government
publications. There seems to be an
idea in my community that am un-
limited in my power to obtain them
but members of Congress are only
allowed a certain number, and when
those are distributed, that is the end
of it. Requests for series of these
publications running away back, are
constantly coming to me. The writ
er fails to comprehend that the
member out of Congress, or the
member who has been dropped out
for single term. is not entitled to
public documents during the time
he is out. For instance | have the
the Agricultural Reports for 1885
to 1889 but those tor 1890 and 1891
l did not get.
Yes the life of a Congressman is
a busy one; it takes every hour of
my time and then l find that it is
difficult to keep up with the work
required of me. Of course manage
occasionally TO contribute something
to newspapers, but have little op-
portunity for systematic reading,
''Then there are incidental dutie s
to which | have not referred. They |
are constantly arising and demand
ing attention. Tlke, for instance,
the distribution of my own speeches.
Following the one | made on the
tariff and again on the pension qnes-
tion received requests for copies
from nearly every state in the Union
Some ask for fifty or hundred,
supposingsI have an unlimited sup
ply but Congressman has to pay
for every speech circulated. There
is much misunderstanding about the
whole matter. A limited number of
documents are issued |
free to the people through their
member bnt the speeches are con6n-
ed to the Congressional records and |
all publications in pamphlet form
must he bought and paid for, either
by the Representative himself, or
some body for him"
''And is there no brighter side to
a Congressman's ife?"
Undoubtedly, for one thing it is
very pleasant to be personally ac-
quainted with a gentleman from
every Congressional District in the
U. S. 1t enlarges the mental scope
to co,nTingle with men Of divergent
opinions and to learn the special re-
of the different sections,
broadens ones view of his country.
Yes, there are many pleasant fea-
lures but in comparison, the labor
is enormous and the net compensa-
ton exceeding small.
The honest upright member of
Congress-. who scorns the suggestion
of greed and profit will find himself
poorer at the end of each succeed
session. If the SD Congress had
not provided clerks for the members
| scarcely see how we would be able
to get along. The labors for a Rep