The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1894-09-28


This does not include $4,000 appro-
priated by the two houses jointly for
the salary of the Public Printer and
his clerks and the miscellaneous ex
penses of the Public Printers office,
nor does it include the enormous ex
pense of printing the public documents,
the Congressional Record, and all man
ner of public printing ordered by Con-
gress. There are thousands of people
employed in the printing office of
whom it Is impossible to get any rec
ord. They are employed on piece
work, and 1t is impossible to estimate
what will be needed to pay them.
There is not a department OF the
government that does not include in
its estimates smaller or greater
amount for the printing of its own de-
partment, and that brings up the cost
of the printing bureau to figures which
1t would be impossible to follow out.
Great Expense for Clerks.
The grossest tie in the Senate and
House bill Of expense are the charges
for clerk hire. 1t long ago became a
byword that there often were more
clerks sitting In the Senate in their
employers chairs than there were Sem
that they can afford to appoint their
sons, their brothers, their brothers-in-
law and any other male members Of
their family to act as their secretary
and draw the pitiful SlJ0 a month,
they ought not TO be ashamed OF
their presence on the floor, and
perhaps they are not. There are
Senators and many of them who
have not only placed their sons on the
pay-rollS, but who have installed wives
and daughters as their private secre-
taries and stenographers, thus keeping
the amount allowed for clerk hire all
in the family. And among the Sena-
tors who have thus provided for their
dependents are those best known to
the country as leaders. There is no
way of getting at the names Of the
people who draw those salaries, but it
Is an open secret that fully one-half
the Senators have their sons or some
membar of their family on the pay
roll. Perhaps nobody should blame
the Senator'S OF either party for thus
aiding in the support of their depend
ents, for they have an illustrious exam
pie in the Vice President of the United
States, whose first official act after
taking oath was 10 appoint his son his
private secretary.
While the House Of representatives.
Is in a general way more costly than
the Senate, that fact must be attrib-
uted to its CREATE membership, but
the House is learning fast. For years
1t has been trying to have corps Of
clerks, one for each member, like those
appointed by the Senate. 1t Is only
within the past year that the Senate
would con sent to this, but finally
through means OF deal it was accom-
plished. 1t is the c1stliest innovation
that the House has made in its ex-
penses in many years. 1t involves, in
fact, 80 much money that every method
OF Disgusting the real expenditure is
employed. There are $50 members OF
the House, OF whom about 90, not be-
ing chairmen o. committees, are en-
titled to this clerical benefit. Under
the new rule each member, not a chair
man. is entitled to 500 per month dur
ing the session for clerk hire. Care
was taken in the wording OF the reso-
luton that the members shall not ap.
point clerk TO draw that salary, but
that he should draw that sum him
self ard use it as he sees fit in hiring
clerical help. This serves a double
purpose. First il keeps lot OF names
OIL the payroll, where 1t is not desir-
able TO have them and ag ain, il Con-
gresham does not want to employ a
clerk, not needing one, he can draw
the money and put IL In his own pock-
ct, and 1t Is an open secret that many
OF them do It. Nothing since the fa-
nous back-pay scandal years ago has
grated so unpleasantly upon the Con-