The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1894-05-24
THE SENATE.

In these times when the attitude of
the United States Senate arouses the
disgust of nearly all citizens it is
we'll to reflect how costly an institu-
ton it is, and we find itso well stated
in the Baltimore Sun that we repro
duce an extract from it's long article:
The House of Representatives of
the United States, with it's $50 men,
bers, takes $415 900 per anDum to
pay it's employees. The Senate, with
eighty eight members, has taken
$41S, 1000 for this year for the same
purpose, and, as it constantly in
| creases it's filching, next year it will
no doubt take more. jrequires
$13O, 900 to pay the mileage of
members of the House, hut the Sen
ate cannot get along With less than
$45 900 annually for the same pur-
pose. In all probability there are
not more than half q dozen of it's
members (if SO many who do not
travel on railroad passes and coolly
drop the money which belongs to the
people into their wallets. The House
contents itself with fifty-seven COM
mittees, one-third at least of which
are of no use, but the Senate cannot
get along with less than sixty.
The innocent reader will ask, Why,
then, do they want to bother with so
many committees? Simply because
the chairman has then a private
room for his use and that of his
friends and a clerk to attend to his
private business without any cost to
himself. The titles of some of these
committees are highly amusing.
When ingenuity was finally exhaust
ed in devisipg names for committees
and it's list had grown to sixty for a
body of lightweight men, it might
have been supposed there would
come a halt. But oh no. The bull
was taken by the horns, and the Sen
ators for whom no committee names
could be found were voted clerks any
way. And so it is that every mem
Der of the Senate has clerk of his
own, at his individual beck and call,
with no drain upon hisprivate purse
The clerks, messengers and EN-
ployes of one kind and another
around the Senate wing of the Capt.
tol are as thick as flies around
sugar barrel. Each Senator does
not cost the country less than $12,-
each one gets $1,000 for wages, and
it is much higher wages than the
majority of them are worth, and in
addition some 81 900 more to pro-
vide him with clerks and walters to
minister to his comfort generally
while he lives and pay his funeral ex-
penses when he dies.
You must know it takes a great
deal of public money to bury a Sena-
tor. Fancy what howl would come
up from all England if the govern
ment was called upon to foot the
bills for the burial of a deceased
member of the House of Lords. A
Senator who dies must, like an
Egyptian king, be embalmed at an
expense ranging from fifty to hun
dred dollars. HE must have q casket |
to cost $3.50; kid gloves in guanti-
ties must be provided; attendants
and hangers-on of various kinds are |
paid a per diem from the time the |
breath leaves his body until he is |
put in the ground. Carriages must |
be provided for all who may wish to |
ride. If he is to be taken home, |
Pullman cars must be had for the /
funeral party at an expense of one
or. two thousand or more. 1t mat
tiers not, as the cost is to be loaded |
upon the broad back of Uncle Sam.
Meals and lunches flor the trip, with
the liquors to wash them down, run
up to hundreds more. The govern
ment is even called upon to pay the
ministers who say prayers. Well,
prayers for some of them ought to
come high.
1t would be superfuous to go
the long list of drugs, cos
petics, toilet al ticles, perfumery,
books, and all sorts of knick-knacks
purchased with public funds for Sem
ators. Has not this been told be-
ore2 Many thousands of dollars
ire spent every year in the summer
unkets OF Senators, gotten up under
he guise of special committees to
make bogus inquiries and investiga-
ions. Pullman palace cars and
Irst class watering place hotel bills
Igure largely in this species of legis-